


Anything

by Miss_Lv



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Alpha Percival, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Babies, Barely Legal, Bottom Newt, Cheating, Cinnamon Roll Newt Scamander, Consensual Infidelity, Daddy Issues, Daddy Kink, Drug Use, Emotional Manipulation, Empty Marriage, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, Illegitimacy, Infidelity, Knotting, Like a Wee bit of it, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Manipulation, Mpreg, Newt is Percival's Son But Not, Omega Newt, Original Percival Graves is Bad at Feelings, Percival Resists dat Ass, Percival is Married to Newt's Mum, Possessive Behavior, Pseudo-Incest, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Smitten Original Percival Graves, The Underage isn't Too Bad, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Underage Perving, Unhealthy Relationships, Virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 01:06:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12332412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Lv/pseuds/Miss_Lv
Summary: Percival knows Newt isn't his child by blood.A true father wouldn't feel the pull as he does, as a alpha does to a omega.





	Anything

**Author's Note:**

> The underage in this isn't too bad, Newt is late teens when minor stuff happens. The incest is also not too heavy but it's there in the sense Percival raised Newt, so beware? 
> 
> Enjoy this. 
> 
> Also feel free to point out any mistakes! :3 Thank you to the lovely Geneveon for reading this over for me! <3

 

Percival loathed that when he found out, it made such utter sense to him. It answered so many questions he had never thought to link together.

It had been obvious.

Margret was a quiet kind, polite and reserved in that English way. They had been arranged and a year after, married. Percival had been nineteen and Margret, seventeen. It was the norm, but Percival thought perhaps they had been too young. He had been focused on his budding career more than his wife. When it occurred to him that was an issue, it had been too late to try and start a relationship years into a marriage. Margret loved to travel and she was rarely in their home for long. So, they maintained a civil and polite marriage but not one based on love. Friendship more likely.

The marriage contract stated a son was expected and so they tried for one. Margret lost the first baby early and Percival didn’t want to push her. They waited years before attempting again. For their efforts, Newton Fido Kay Artemis Graves was born.

He was so tiny and delicate, Percival often feared he would hurt him just holding him. So he kept a wary distance, only wanting good things for his child. Margret perhaps read something incorrectly in Percival’s hesitance to handle the baby. Maybe she was just tired of New York. Tired of Percival. For whatever reason, she insisted on going back to England to visit her family. The month-long vacation expanded into four months, and then eight, and then more a year long. Percival visited England during the time but he saw little of Newton.  

The next year he was promoted and work took over once more. Percival was talented as an auror and he wanted to use that to help. Perhaps he just liked the way people looked up to him or the endless praise. Either way, he looked up one day and it had been five years. Newton was almost six and Percival could count on his hands how many times he had seen his son.

So he demanded Margret return home.

She found so many excuses and Percival really didn’t understand it, but his wife did not want to be in America. She did visit him more often, once a month before she was off to India, China, Japan, Thailand, Spain, all over the world. She was learning languages and Percival could afford for her to learn them in their mother countries. She always took Newton with her, their son being raised in lush cultures and seeing the world from a young age.  

Percival couldn’t fault that.

But it itched under his skin, not knowing his son better. Percival’s own father had been the same, always at work and when he was around, he had been formal and distant. The idea that he was turning into the same man troubled him.

He tried to visit them on their travels and he spent the little time Newton was in New York with him always. But it fell short, it didn’t feel enough for him.

Years went by and it never felt right.

So Percival made his choice.

He gave up his rising career in MACUSA and took a transfer which would have him working in the Ministry as a MACUSA representative. It seemed random to many but for Percival, it was the only real choice.

His wife and son lived in England and this job would allow him to be closer. Without uprooting Newton, he could see him more. The boy could travel less with his mother and spend more time at home with his father.

Margret had not been pleased with the choice. She hid it well enough, but Percival could sense it was not what she had wanted.

Regardless, Percival moved from the world he knew into a new one to know his son.

A son that wasn’t even his, as it turned out.

 

Newton was ten now, watching Percival with wide eyes. He had always been so shy around people, but he knew Percival enough that he would hide behind him from others. That the boy would come when he called him.

Percival had no real idea how to bond with his boy and Margret wasn’t offering any ideas. So, Percival tried reading. His mother used to read to him sometimes and he recalled the memory fondly. Each evening when he had the time, he would settle in the study with a classical book and Newton. At first, the boy stayed on his side of the couch, but he always listened quietly. It felt fruitless and frustrating the first few weeks. But very slowly, Newt began asking questions about the story. Very gradually, he drifted closer to Percival.

One night, almost three months in, Newton, or Newt as he liked to be called, curled up with Percival. Winter’s cold was settling in and despite the fire, the room was a touch cold. Newt sat close to Percival and when he leaned in to show the boy an illustration in the book, Newt pressed into his side. He was cold.

So Percival pulled a throw from the back of the couch over them and curled his son under his arm. Newt sat stiffly a moment before finally relaxing and snuggling into Percival’s side.

It felt like such a victory, a tender moment that made Percival’s heart swell.

But it soured quickly.

Newt was an omega and would be mated to an alpha one day. Margret was a beta while Percival, himself, was an alpha. Because of their shared blood, the pull of Newt being an omega would not affect him.

It shouldn’t.

But the clean scent smelt pure and warm somehow. Sticky in a delicate way. Percival pressed his nose into Newt’s curls, reading softly and he could feel… something.

After that day, Newt cuddled constantly, he loved it. He wanted Percival to hug and hold him whenever he could. It was clear Margret didn’t approve of it for some reason and Newt sensed that. He only sought to be coddled when his mother wasn’t there to see. 

When they read, Newt would sit in his lap, climb right up and settle in contently. The boy was reading along as well, slowing working on his own skills. The position allowed Percival to hold the book open as Newt read slowly. 

Percival could feel his slight weight pressed close and that sweet scent in his nose.

When Newt went off to bed, Percival poured himself a strong drink and wondered if he was a pervert.  

A sexual deviant that wanted his own blood.

It wasn’t a lustful desire but that of an alpha sensing an omega that could be a mate. A prebond, an alpha latching onto an omega too young to mate. A platonic urge to protect him but also keep all other alphas away. An intention to have the omega when they were old enough.

 

It wasn’t until he met Theseus Scamander that he realized it. Like a slap in the face.

Theseus was a friend of Margret’s family, they had known each other as children and their friendship continued as adults. Percival had never met the man but heard that he was an upstanding and good man.

Turned out he was also a wife stealing mongrel.

They met at some garden party, some political event when Percival brought his wife and shook hands. It was mainly for work and while it wasn’t his first choice, Percival still wanted to do well. So, he smiled in the right places and charmed in others.

Theseus was an auror rising in the ranks and when they met, Percival could see a discomfort in his gaze.

“We finally meet, I’ve heard great things about you,” Percival offered and the split second of guilt in the man’s face made his stomach drop. 

Margret and Percival were not in love, but he did think they were friends. Percival thought the woman had enough decency not to run around on him. Suddenly, all of the traveling took on a twisted edge.

“Should we say hello to the host?” Margret asked Percival, her own gaze lowered. Percival suddenly felt like a great utter fool.

A fucking idiot.

“Lets,” he agreed calmly.

He spent the rest of the time planning his divorce.

When they arrived back, his wife was quieter than ever before. She obviously knew he had figured it out. A single look had told him all he needed. His wife had cheated on him and it was more than likely that Percival wasn’t Newt’s true sire. Scamander’s copper hair and soft freckles were the exact same shade as his son’s own.

“Percival,” she began and he turned away from her, unable to look at her right then.

“Goodnight,” he snapped, leaving the hallway and heading to his room. Of course, they had separate rooms. His wife had her own bed and Percival had respected that. He supposed it was for the best, at least he wasn’t sleeping in the bed Scamander was fucking her in.

“Papa,” a tiny voice whispered and Percival’s heart hurt far worse than the humiliation of realizing he was being stepped out on. That the little boy he was working so hard to bond with wasn’t even his. No wonder Margret tried to keep Newt away, Percival wasn’t his proper father.

Still, he swallowed the pain and sensation of loss down. He turned and Newt was peering out of his bedroom, a book in his arms.

“Is it too late?” the sweet child asked him and Percival wanted to cry. He wanted to be angry and vicious, but he only felt a great empty hole in him, a despair taking hold.

“No, my boy, it’s not,” he reassured Newt and the boy smiled so sweetly, opening the door all the way so Percival could follow him in.

They settled on the bed together and Percival read the book as Newt curled under his arm and dozed off. Dropping his head against the headboard, Percival thought of Newt and what a divorce would mean for the boy.

Next year he would begin his schooling; the selection would slim immensely if Newt was the child of a divorced mother. More so if Percival didn’t claim him. Without good schooling, Newt would never be able to work the better jobs. He wouldn’t be able to pursue his dreams of being a magizoologist. A bastard child was never treated well in society. Scorned for his parent’s shameful choices. Being an omega, Newt would be treated even less.

Pulling his wand out, Percival wove a relation spell. They used it as aurors to discover links between criminals sometimes. The red little cord tapped his own wrist and Percival watched the magic lazily rise, waiting to be guided.

He led it to Newt.

The cord of magic drifted gently over the boy and when it touched, it turned black.

No relation.

Newt wasn’t his child.

Dropping his wand, Percival rubbed his face and heaved a shoulder-shaking sigh.

Newt wasn’t his child.

The boy that was curled up into his side, slowly learning to trust and relax around him, wasn’t his. Percival had just spent months of coaxing Newt to open up, to call him papa more often and that Percival was there to be with him.

He couldn’t just rip that away suddenly. Not after promising he was going to be there for years now and that Newt was always welcomed to stay with him. Blood didn't change love.

Percival gently slipped his arm from the boy, replacing his side with a pillow. Newt clutched it and snuggled down with a tiny huff.

Running his fingers through the copper curls, Percival felt horrid.

 

He left the room and Margret was waiting outside, leaning on her own bedroom door.

“I’m sorry, Percival. I am… so sorry. I have no right, no right at all. But please,” she began. He didn’t want her words though, he didn’t want anything from the woman.

Without replying, he headed to his own room and closed the door. Digging through his locked cabinet, he found an old bottle of high-end whiskey. With no work tomorrow, Percival allowed himself to get utterly blasted.

 

He avoided Margret utterly, walked away from her when she sought him out. Percival wanted nothing to do with her at that point. He had no real idea what he was going to do. A very large part of him wanted nothing more than to divorce her and walk away. If not for Newt, Percival would have. But the consequences for the boy made Percival hesitate.

Such a sweet lad, Percival couldn’t imagine a life of being treated less would be well handled. Then there was the fact that he was an omega. Newt would be matched to marry eventually and if Percival was divorced, he would have no say. Margret could marry the boy off to the highest bidder. He swallowed the bitterness and knew that she would not, that she loved Newt very much. But still, she didn’t know as much as he did about the various families of the wizarding world. Which were truly upstanding and who was merely putting on a front. Newt deserved a good match. If he was the bastard child of a broken marriage, those choices would be poor. Proper families would refuse to match with him.

 

“I know you don’t want to have this conversation,” Margret announced when she caught him in his study. She closed the door and leaned against it to prevent escape. Percival sat back in his chair and stared at her. He took in the woman that had played him for years and years.

“But we need to have it. We need to discuss what will happen-“

“We’re going to divorce, eventually the world will know what you choose to do,” he cut her off calmly. He watched as she flinched and glared at the floor.

“Not everybody gets to have a choice, Percival. Not everyone gets what they want.”

“Do you think I wanted you?” He scoffed, feeling mean and cruel. “A cold wife even before I realized she was cheating on me. You played me like an utter idiot.”

“There’s more to it,” she said, her face drawn with guilt but her chin lifted high. “Me and Theseus, we-”

“I really don’t care.” Percival snapped. “If not for Newt, I would have left last night.”

“And now?”

Percival rubbed his face in his hands.

“We’ll divorce when Newt comes of age. Once he had his education and his job begun, a marriage. Once your choices won’t cost him his dreams.”

“…Thank you. I… I am sorry.”

“Please get out,” Percival rasped and looked away as the door creaked and shut with a click. He wondered if she thought that Percival hadn’t realized the boy wasn’t his own. He wondered if she thought she was fooling him still.

 

Margret and Newton went to India at the end of the week.

“Do we have to,” Newt complained as his mum pulled on his coat and the driver loaded the bags up. “I wanted to stay home.”

“Another time,” Margret told him softly, pressing a kiss to Newt’s hair. “Say goodbye now.”

Newt looked up at Percival, meeting his gaze for a moment. He threw his arms around Percival’s middle unexpectedly, hugging him tightly.

“Goodbye papa, I’ll miss story time.”

“Me too,” Percival replied, running a hand through the boy’s curls gently. “Have fun in India, alright?”

Newt nodded.

They stayed in India until Newt received his letter for Hogwarts school.

 

Percival had given up a life in America to be with his family and now he spent his days alone in a house in England. He shook his head at his own foolishness.

Newt wrote him often, long rambling letters about magical creatures and things happening around him. He told Percival of storybooks he had found with stories from India. Books they could read when he returned home.

Percival wrote back that it was a fine idea and that they would read each one.

 

Over half a year later, Newt was back home for Christmas.

Margret had come back a month prior.  Percival mostly ignored her presence,  but with Newt back they were forced to interact, to share meals and go places together with him.

 

Percival focused on the boy and did his best to make sure Newt was content. It was the best he could offer.

“So I sent back the books from India and I found a few more. ” The boy rambled and Percival fought a smile. Sitting together in the study with the fire blazing they began the anthology on magical creature lore.

It was a bit more advanced than what an eleven-year-old boy should be reading, but Newt seemed to follow it easily. So Percival let it be, peering down at beautiful illustrations of dragons and phoenixes.   

“Papa?”

“Hmm?” Percival rumbled, expecting another question on dragon claws. Newt was truly passionate about magical creatures and determined to learn everything he could.

“…Are you happy?”

Percival tore his gaze to his son, his not-son, to Newt with his eyes down on the pages.

“Why… why would you ask that?”

Newt shrugged. “Just…I just…worried.”

It had to be coming from somewhere though, Percival tried to think of a moment when he might have slipped up. Or if it was possible that Margret had said something to the lad.

“I’m…” Percival trailed off, wondering about the wisdom of lying. Of creating an illusion that Newt would one day look back on and see as a lie. Omegas were supposedly sensitive to such things, able to empathize strongly. Percival had never noticed it within Newt but then,  he had never really looked.

“I like spending time with you,” he decided to say. “We’re good friends aren’t we?” He asked and Newt nodded immediately, sweet thing. 

“Being an adult can be… complex and you might feel many things. Sometimes I am sad,” he allowed. “But when I’m with you, I’m happy.”

Newt bit his lip, thinking for a moment before giving himself a nod.

“I’m happy too. I’m glad you moved to England and that we got to read together.”

Percival smiled down at the boy.

“Me too.”

 

Percival couldn’t punish Newt for his mother’s actions. So when he visited home, Percival made time for him. He never felt any sort of resentment for the boy. He embraced the child freely and Newt seemed delighted with his attention.

Margret was unsure of it all, watching them interact silently with a solemn sort of air. She had something to say but was holding the words back. Percival didn’t care to hear them anyway.

 

Newt was thirteen when Percival and Scamander met again.

During a cheery winter day, Percival and Newt had gone out to shop for Christmas. There was only a handful of days Newt was home so they made the best of it. 

“I’d like to go to America. I want to see more of it and visit New York, you could show me everywhere,” Newt suggested for his gift and Percival fought a fond smile. He missed his childhood city and he missed America. England was different in many ways and while it had its own wonders, it wasn’t his home. He missed his estate house in the city center, with a view of Grand Central Park.

“Perhaps we can find time in the summer,” Percival allowed and Newt offered a shy but bright smile in return. Newt led the way up the stairs to their London house and Percival followed.

They stepped into the house just as Theseus Scamander was about to step out. Margret was nowhere to be seen. Percival could hear the water of the bath running upstairs.

The other man looked horribly guilty and ashamed.

Then he looked down at Newt, trying to force a smile, trying to make nice with the boy.

With his son.

Not Percival’s son but this cur’s.

It didn’t enrage him that Scamander had taken his wife, perhaps always had her. But the way he looked at Newt made Percival’s vision burn red.

The mirror in the hall shattered.

Percival punched his wife’s lover across the chin as hard as he could and Theseus fell back, not trying to defend himself. Newt watched with shock, staring up at Percival. It was his wide-eyed gaze that made Percival get his control back.

“I would appreciate it if you never set foot in this house ever again.” Percival ground out. “It is my house, after all. Have some sort of decency, please.”

Percival held out a hand for Newt and the boy rushed to his side, watching Scamander with an unsure look as the man gathered himself.

“Take these to the study, please,” Percival asked Newt and the boy trembled as he took the packages. “It’s ok, Newt,” Percival assured him, running a hand through his hair soothingly. Newt looked up at Percival, meeting his gaze a moment before deciding to believe him. He went down the hall, stepping carefully around the broken glass.

Percival waved a hand to clean it, settling back into the frame.

Scamander got himself up and seemed to hesitate at the door as if to speak.

“Don’t. Don’t ever talk to me. Just leave.” Percival snarled and the man had the courtesy to let him have that.

Percival took the stairs two at a time.

Margret jumped when he slammed the door open with a bang and stomped into the bathroom. Her towel rushing up to cover her as she was just about to step into the tub. She looked pale to see him, caught.

“Don’t ever bring him here again. Don’t ever do that while Newt is around. You owe him that much. You want to be that way, do it somewhere else.”

Percival could feel his anger rising, but he fought it down.

“Not ever again,” he managed to repeat before he turned and yanked the door close.

His hands shook as he calmed himself.

He wanted a drink to soothe his nerves, but Newt deserved better than Percival talking to him with alcohol on his breath.

The boy looked up when Percival came to the study. His small hands clutched together tightly.

“Th-That was Mister Scamander,” the boy offered.

“Yes. It was. I…I don’t like him I’m afraid.” Newt was thirteen, he wasn’t a fool, but Percival didn’t know how to tell him. Your mother is his lover. I’m looking the other way. Because I’m weak. Because I want you to be happy despite them.

“Is he…a bad man?” Newt frowned and Percival realized he thought Scamander might be a dark wizard of the like. He had been raised on stories of Percival being an auror.

“It’s complicated.”

“Like being an adult,” Newt echoed the old words and Percival smiled weakly that the clever boy recalled.

“Very much.”

Percival crossed the room, leaving the door and sitting on the small couch in front of the fire with the boy.

“It’s early, but shall we read for a bit?”

Newt nodded eagerly, turning to pull their book from the small tableside and finding their place.

“Should I read?”

Percival nodded. “Please, I feel like you know the pronunciations far better than I.”

Newt shifted and smiled weakly, the tension in the air slowly beginning to fade.

 

When Newt came home in the summer, he was at odds with his mother. Percival had never seen them fight before, not beyond a few days. They were typically two peas in a pod. Margret loved traveling and languages and Newt loved traveling and creatures. They recalled fond memories all the time, they worked together in a way that spoke of a strong bond.

Now everything was awkward.

Newt went quiet around his mother and preferred Percival’s company. Their shared meals were filled with a great unspoken tension. Percival wanted to be satisfied, he wanted to be smug.

It was clear Newt had realized what was going on. He wrote them both when he was in school. Perhaps, he had asked his mother outright. Perhaps, he had realized there were few reasons Percival would punch a man he found in his house alone with his wife.

Either way, the air was still and sour.

Margret looked heartbroken. All her attempts to talk with Newt and draw him in were rebuffed. Outing to museums they had always shared no longer took Newt’s interest. He was meek to begin with, keeping his gaze down, an omega trait. He raised them to meet Percival’s gaze occasionally. He never did with his mother anymore. 

It was deserved by Margret. Percival knew that she would answer for her choices one day. Broken lovers and secret affairs aside, she had a child and had named a father that was not true. For that, she would have to answer to that child one day.

Newt was just as heartbroken, just as sad as she was though and that ruined any satisfaction Percival could have felt. The poor boy was utterly miserable and Percival hated to see him so, but he honestly didn’t know how to help. Any discussion that had to happen would be between mother and son.

So Percival spent time with Newt, trying to reassure him and cheer the boy up. They went to pictures and walked the parks in the city. They even attended an exhibit of magical creatures, the one Newt had refused to see with his mother.

Newt did smile to see the beasts.

He walked around the displays with his endless curiosity.

“You know, these sorts of things so rarely talk about anything beyond danger,” Newt commented as he peered at the information chart beside the pelts on a table. “Or their use in potions and the like. Never about the actual creature. Never about their lives or habitats. Books are the same way. Always how to kill them and never how to help.”

“Well, you see a problem with it?” Percival asked and Newt glanced up at him, peering for a second before nodding and looking away. “Then you must solve it.”

Newt looked back curiously.

“Don’t spend your life complaining, my father told me once,” Percival explained. He took on a soft tone so the words weren’t harsh like he had received them. “When you see a problem solve it, he would say.”

“Solve books and exhibits filled with misinformation and poor reflections of magical beasts?” Newt sounded like it was far beyond his ability.

“Are they not worth that?” Percival tried and Newt blinked, thinking it over as he peered at the pelts on display. Nifflers caught and skinned as they were seen as pests.

“They are,” the boy decided.

“Then study hard and become the magizoologist you want to be. Write new books and create new exhibits.”

Newt nodded, looking around the room with a new resolve.

“Do you think I can?” He asked after a moment and Percival laughed. He reached out to touch the small of Newt’s back, the contact comforting the omega.

“I know you can. We’re reading books on creatures that I'm struggling to follow and you eat them up so fast. You can do anything you choose, I suspect.” Percival assured him.

They walked home on foot, the summer evening, warm, and the house, not too far. The nightlife was just beginning as tourists wandered a few streets down. It was an enjoyable atmosphere. 

“Did you know Marmites mates for life?” Newt announced suddenly and Percival tipped his head.

“I did not. Those are the long transparent ones?”

Newt nodded with a smile. His gaze was on the sidewalk under their feet.

“They seek out others when they come of age, you see. And they court one another, searching until they find their match. They mate for life and if the one dies, the other follows it.”

“A bit gloomy,” Percival remarked, thinking of the idea that a lost lover would be so terrible one would follow them.

Newt nodded.

“It’s hard on their offspring. If they lose one parent, they’ve lost both.”

Percival glanced at Newt as he stared down and away.

“Mum… Mum and Mister Scamander are lovers, aren’t they?”

Percival blew out a breath, thinking of the proper answer and deciding on the truthful one.

“They are.”

“You know. That’s why you hit him?”

Percival nodded.

“I… I shouldn’t have. At least, not in front of you.”

Newt shrugged.

Percival couldn’t read the boy at all and it put him on edge.

“Have they… have they for a long time?”

“I never asked. Never cared to.”

Newt frowned at the ground.

“You didn’t want to know?”

“I… I didn’t care. Not how long or how many times. All that mattered was that it was done. Even once.” Percival ran a hand through his hair and looked up at the sky as the sunlight faded steadily.

“Me and your mum… We were arranged. We didn’t choose one another. We never… We were friends but it wasn’t more.” He felt awkward and fumbling, but he had to say bloody something.

“I wasn’t in love with her and she never loved me. We knew that much. But… she betrayed me, she betrayed our marriage vows.”

“She said you were getting a divorce,” Newt spoke up.

“Eventually. It’ll be years before we do though.”

“Because of me.”

“No.” Percival stopped and he made the boy stop as well. “Not because of you. For you. So you have everything you deserve. The world… It's not fair, Newt. It’s not everyone being treated fairly. You would… It would be harder for you, at school and when you sought work. To find a mate. If we divorced. So we’ll wait.”

Newt looked so young, so impossibly tiny standing before Percival and he had to reach for him. Gathering up the boy who went willingly into his arms. Percival didn’t have in him to explain that it would affect the boy so much because his true parentage would come out as well. Perhaps Percival might keep that secret for him, to allow people to think Newt was a Graves. But one look at Scamander and anyone with sense would know.  

“It’s a mess, I know. But we’ll figure it out.”

“Will you leave me?” Newt choked out, sounding far too emotional.

“Leave you?”

Newt hid his face in Percival’s chest.

“When you divorce, will it be like before again? Will I never see you anymore?”

“Oh. No. I don’t think so. It’ll be up to us. Me and you. And I’d like you to be around. I’ll always want that. What about you?”

Newt sniffed and nodded his head. “I want that too.”

“There we go,” Percival made his voice light. He pressed a kiss to the omega’s hair. “We’ll figure it out. You can come visit me in New York some summers and the like. We can chase down beasts all over the country.”

That wrung a soft chuckle and Percival smiled.

“Shall we head home? Or would you like to keep hugging in the middle of a street? I’m willing if you are.” He teased and Newt laughed outright. He stepped back and smiled weakly up at Percival.

“I love you,” he announced and Percival felt his heart thump in reply.

“And I love you, my boy.”

 

Summer passed slowly, with Newt and his mother at odds and Percival trying to avoid the whole mess. He wanted to support the poor boy but he wasn’t sure how to. Despite what had happened, Newt should have a relationship with his mother. But Percival doesn’t think it was his place to make that decision so he mostly tried to keep out of the fray.

So they went places together and spend time together, just the two of them. Margret had long avoided Percival and Newt must know that. It felt like that might be part of the reason he settled in Percival’s study more often. He would work on a few things brought home from his job at the Ministry and Newt would lay on the couch and read about this or that magical creature.

With the tension so thick between mother and son, it was almost a bit of a reprieve when Newt head back to school and Margret took off to some new country. But the house was too empty and Percival missed his boy terribly. He got too used to Newt being around, he realized. He found himself listening for those soft footsteps and shook his head at his own foolishness.  

Time away was best.

Percival still read aloud with Newt, they never stopped the evening habit. But as Newt’s body grew, Percival began to feel a well of shame. There was no shared blood between them and Percival was an alpha without a mate. Newt was a virgin omega coming into his body. It was so utterly wrong of him and Percival despised it, but he felt the pull none the less. He was beginning to become attracted to his boy, to Newt’s pure scent.

He knew a large part of it was biology more than anything. As an unmated alpha of his age, it was not unusual to feel the pull to any available omega, a last ditch effort to secure one and continue his bloodline. Newt was an omega just blossoming, not even knowing his body yet. He didn't know better and he didn't know how he must smell to alphas, not truly. Percival must be better for both of them. He must restrain himself from these inappropriate and base reactions. He raised Newt, closer to a father than Scamander ever will be. He will not betray that.

 

In mid-November, he received an owl from Hogwarts. Margret was somewhere in the alps and couldn’t receive the notifications so Percival traveled alone. He cited a family emergency and took the day off.     

Hogwarts was an impressive school.

It had had centuries to build itself and it was protected within in a safe haven. America’s schools had always been forced to move for safety every few decades. But regardless, Percival could admit it was an impressive place. 

Newt was waiting in the headmaster’s office, head hung low in shame.

There was a dark haired girl with her parents as well. The headmaster and two professors.

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Graves,” Newt looked up sharply, clearly expecting his mother. Percival wasn’t sure if he was relieved or displeased to see him instead.

“What is going on exactly?” Percival asked, standing behind Newt’s chair rather than taking a seat.

He listened to the headmaster explain the issue, a secret Jarvey that had been let loose among the students and endangered their lives. 

Apparently, Newt had been the one to accidentally set it free.

“An accident,” Percival repeated, frowning down at the boy who refused to meet his gaze.

“These t-things happen, it w-was my fault.”

Newt was so clearly lying, Percival wanted to shake the boy.

“Leta had no involvement with this mess, an innocent bystander,” the father of the girl added.

“Both Newton and Leta were found where the creature was released.” One of the professors explained and the man sneered.

“The boy admits his crime, what more is there? He had an illegal beast and brought it here and let it go. Merlin knows where he got such a thing.”

Percival sized up the man, a noble born in fine clothing but a hard face with twisted features. Percival would bet his right hand the man used dark magic, he had that perverse air about him. He dug through his mind and came up with Leta Lestrange, Newt had mentioned her before. The Lestrange family then.

“I’ll speak with my son,” Percival decided, motioning for Newt to stand. After a moment, the boy got up and followed Percival across the room.

“It’s all a mistake,” Newt began weakly and Percival silenced him with a hand held out.

“Don’t. Don’t start lying to me,” He requested with a heaving sigh.

Sensing listening magic seeping around them, he cast a quick but strong charm to repel it and kept their words between them.

“Why are you lying? Taking the blame?”

Newt stared at the stone floor miserably.

“This will come at a cost, these charges carry a mark beyond schooling, Newt. Do you think you can attend a university of any sort for magical creatures if there is a mark like this on your record?”

Newt’s lip wobbled.

“There are worse things,” he finally confessed, not looking back but Percival could guess immediately. The young girl looking pale between her stern parents.

“It’s not your job to look after her. If she chose to do this.”

“It really was an accident,” Newt pressed with a soft urgency.

“But it was dangerous, what if someone was killed? What do you think will happen to the beast itself now? Do you think they’re just going to let it free somewhere?”

Newt shook his head in negative and Percival felt his heart soften as the boy wiped a tear away with his sleeve.

“I k-know what they’ll d-do.”

“You wanted to change that, to make things different for all creatures one day?”

Newt nodded.

“You’re forfeiting that. For this girl. If her parents will punish her harshly for this, they’ll find other reasons as well. Taking a fall isn’t helping her, not in the long run. Is she worth the lives of all the creatures you want to help.”

“Sh-She’s my friend,” Newt choked weakly. “The only o-one I have,” he admitted bitterly. “I don’t want to lose t-that.”

The headmaster was gesturing at them and so Percival dropped the charm and led Newt back into his chair. 

“And so?” The one professor asked, his tone coaxing and kind. “Perhaps there is something young Newton would like to say?”

Newt sat quietly, determined to defend his friend. Percival couldn’t fault that loyalty. Newt talked of Hogwarts fondly, he had never suggested he was an outsider or that he was lonesome.

Percival sighed, realizing there was an entire side of the boy he did not know.

“Newton is lying,” he announced calmly. The boy jerked in his seat, twisting to turn wide, accusing eyes on Percival.

“He’s trying to protect his friend. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it is highly unlikely my son was the cause of this.”

“Your son admitted it,” The other father snapped and Percival spared him a cold look.

“And your daughter has nothing to say? Sitting quietly between mummy and daddy as her supposed friend is punished?”

The girl did look trapped and a touch scared, but she looked to her mother before staying silent. A child well trained.

“I don’t know how America works but here-”

“In America, a family like yours would not be attending school,” Percival snarled. “It’s obvious to anyone who cares to look. The Lestrange family has a reputation indeed, even across the world.”

The man jerked to his feet, eyes narrowed and wand in hand.

“You should watch your words,” he hissed and Percival scoffed.

“I’ve spent most of my life hunting dark wizards. In America, we don’t have soft prisons for them. We execute them.”

“That is more than enough,” the headmaster announced with a firm voice.

Percival glared the Lestrange down a moment longer before turning back the headmaster. Newt was still in his chair, head tucked in shame and guilt.

“I won’t stand for Newt being punished when it’s obvious there is more to it.” Percival announced, staring the headmaster down firmly. “I’m not trying to make things harder here. But it is clear that there is more to this, isn’t it?”

The older man frowned but didn’t disagree. The professor that had spoken up gave a small nod.

“Was it a lie, Newton?” The headmaster asked Newt and everyone’s attention fell on him. Percival could see the pressure twisting in him and he knew it was torture on Newt to be in this position. 

He wrung his hands red and stared at the floor.

“I… n-no sir.”

The headmaster frowned a moment longer before sitting back in his chair. The Lestrange father’s lips smirked in victory.

“Very well. Given the situation, I’m afraid we cannot overlook this. A month’s expulsion,” the man decreed.

“For both students.”

The Lestranges screeched in outrage but Percival spared them no attention, looking down at his boy’s copper curls. It was a light punishment so he left it be.  

They were led from the office, house elves bringing the children's belongs. Owls with school work would be sent to keep them up in their studies.

“You think you can play games with my family?” Lestrange snarled once the professors were out of earshot.

“I don’t give a fuck about your family,” Percival snarled right back, hurt and anger making his words sharp. “But if you ever cause trouble for mine, I will hunt you down and I will kill you. It was my job for years and I’d have no problem doing it again.”

Percival had played these games with dark wizards before. He knew the dangers, he kept his home and family warded and safe. Every auror did. But Percival was born powerful and trained well. It wasn’t arrogance, it was fact. He was far stronger than the man glaring at him and they both knew it.

After a moment longer, the Lestranges disapparated away.

Percival held out an arm and Newt took it obediently.

 

The strain was heavy between them.

Their relationship was still tender, still growing and trying to make up for years of absence. This was the first hard break between them. 

Percival left Newt at the front door, heading to his study to write Margret an owl. One specially trained that it would be able to reach her. He wrote the words quickly, his pen scratching the paper too deeply. When it tore, he tossed the pen to the desk in annoyance for his own lack of control.

Sitting back, he rubbed his face and tried to clam the anger still simmering in his chest.

He had acted poorly with the Lestranges. Now he would have to be wary of them, he’d have to renew all the wards and look into the connections they had within London. Newt and Margret would need charms of protection and safety. In his anger, Percival had risked them all.

He sensed more than heard Newt at the doorway. The youth stood there silently.

“You made a choice today,” Percival said without looking at him. “Choices have consequences.”

Percival wasn’t livid at the dark family or the school. He wasn’t angry about some beast getting loose.

He was furious because he was hurt. Hurt that Newt chose to lie, still. To sit there and throw away his future to defend some dark born girl. Even if she was innocent and nothing like her family, she had done something and should have to answer for it. Newt had allowed her to drag him down. Such a willingness to forfeit what was clearly important to him, Percival wondered if Newt was in love with her.

He had to be.

She was an alpha.

“You lied. You lied for a reason you think is right. But in the end, you sat there and you lied to your superiors. The people there to help protect and safeguard that school. If that girl goes back and ends up killing someone, it’s on your hands, as well, now.”

Percival looked over at Newt finally, the thin waif of a boy looked tiny, curled in on himself hiding against the heavy wood door. 

“I hope you’re ready for that, Newton. You’ve disappointed me today. More than any words or punishment can show you. Go… away. Go to your room, do whatever you want.”

Percival watched him nod, tear tracks on his cheeks as he ducked out of the room and down the hall. Dropping his head against the back of his chair, Percival allowed himself a moment to sit and just revel in the troubled emotions. But he eventually sat up and pulled fresh paper to him, writing to Margret properly. After, he penned letters to aurors in America and a few he knew in England to gather intel about the dark family he had just threatened.

 

Margret returned home in a great flurry, rushing to Newt’s side. Whatever troubles left between them seemed to be put to rest against the situation. Newt returned to his mother’s side, slipping back into the spot as if nothing had happened between them.

Percival and Newt remained at odds.

With a new unease between them, Newt seemed unable to look Percival in the eye anymore. He had been harsh with the boy, they both knew it, but Percival couldn’t take it back. He had hoped for more from Newt. He was a good lad, a clever boy. While he was socially awkward, he was still a good soul. Lying, beyond little white lies, truly lying, was a slippery slope. Being close friends with the child of a known dark family wasn’t a great sign either.

 

“I’ll be leaving next week,” Percival announced at dinner, the entire affair stilted.

“Where will you be heading?” Margret managed to feign that much interest.

“New York for a handful of days, a meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards. I’m to represent as an American working within the Ministry.”

“Sounds important,” she didn’t even sound too mocking.

“I’ll be leaving on Monday. Likely to return Friday or Saturday.”

“Take your time,” Margret offered. Everything about her irked him. His annoyance prickled with how utterly content she was. Newt was at her side again and now, there was a gap between Percival and the boy. 

Newt didn’t look up during the entire exchange.

It itched at Percival and he knew he couldn’t leave it be.

So in the evening when Margret was retired for the night, he stopped by Newt’s room. The boy never slept early and so when he knocked, he was admitted. Newt stared at his book, already in bed but sitting up and reading.

“I thought we should talk before I left.”

Newt nodded in immediate agreement and then fidgeted with the edge of the book in his lap.

“I’m not sorry,” he said in a soft rush before Percival could say anything. “I… Leta needed my help so I helped her. I can’t regret that.”

“She’s not the best sort, you know. There is a possibility that maybe she’s not like her family, that she’s different. But chances are…” Percival didn’t know how to do this, how to talk to a teenager, to warn them of something they thought they knew.

“You’re wrong,” Newt announced with a sure tone. “Leta is my friend.”

He sounded so certain.

“Just a friend?”

Newt drooped his chin a bit, a red flush spilling onto his face.

“I do not believe that matters. What does is that you want me to be sorry and I can’t be. I don’t think there’s much more to say beyond that.”

Percival wished he had better control, that his temper would obey him. When he worked, when he was on the job, he was precise and rarely let things rankle him. It seemed like all Newt did was pull emotions, both good and bad, out of his chest without ever asking.

“Very well,” Percival replied, his tone short. “Have a good week.”

He left the room and ran a hand through his hair as he walked down to his room. The weight of his broken house was beginning to pull at him.

 

“So leave,” was Seraphina’s bright solution.

“Perfect. All my problems are solved.” Percival snarked back. The president of MACUSA gave him a dark look before leaving her spot behind her desk and settling in the chair beside Percival.

“The boy’s not yours. You mean well,  but are you not doing exactly what he is? Extending protection to someone you’re not responsible for? I think your sense of honor is blinding you.” 

Percival would have snapped at anyone else. But for his oldest friend, he fought his annoyance down.

“It’s not the same. Newt… He doesn’t deserve to pay for his mother’s sins. No child does.”

“But this Leta?”

“Different.”

Seraphina raised a brow in silent judgment as her glass of fine whiskey floated from her desk to her hand.

“All I’m suggesting, is that perhaps Newt does not need your protection as much as you think he does. He’s far from a little child. Sixteen, was it?”

“Fifteen.”

“Not five. He’s old enough to be arranged into a marriage. I would think he’s old enough to make his own choices and to face the world.”

“So just abandon them both?”

“Your wife is not loyal and your son is not your own. You don’t owe them very much. I’m not saying you need to never speak with either again. But if you’re unhappy, why are you staying there?”

Percival glared at his own glass of whiskey in sullen silence.

“Honestly, you want advice and you never take it,” Seraphina huffed.

“Because you give shit advice. Always have.”

“I am your president. You are by law forced to respect me.”

Percival snorted and allowed a smile in reply to her wry one.

“Truthfully. I am pushing a bit. It would be nice to have you return. I’m thin on the ground here. Everyone has an agenda and it would be nice to have one auror with the right motives.”

“Bevard, Smith, Wagner, Halsted, and Gager are all good solid aurors.” Percival shot back. “They can point you to even more good apples if you ask.”

“Yes, and not a single one is capable of maintaining a high position. They aren’t willing to play politics or to spend days at a desk reading reports and papers.”

“I hate desk work,” Percival confessed, thinking of everything waiting back in his London office. “I used to be able to balance it with actual work. But now, all I do is look at papers and smile at pompous arses who think Americans are morons.”

“America awaits you, waiting with open arms,” Seraphina offered and Percival allowed a genuine smile for her.

“I appreciate it, but it’s better to ride this out and see where I end up. Worst case, you only need to wait a few more years before I return.”

“I’ll have a nice parade for you, the Great Graves Returns. Hot on the market, looking for a pretty wife to have all the babies with.”

Percival scoffed at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

“An old, jaded man, who just wants a warm house with peace and quiet.”

“You might want many things, but an empty house isn’t one of them, don’t pretend otherwise.” Seraphina scolded him easily. She had always been good at that, helping Percival clear his head when it got muddled.

 

As always, her words did linger. Percival hadn’t put much thought into remarrying. He was into his thirties now, and the thought of dating seemed boundlessly tiring. As a youth, it had been exciting, but he never really done much of it. He had known he was going to be arranged to marry as a teenager. Now as an older man, he really didn’t want to try his hand at something so awkward.

But was he selling himself short? A wife, a true wife that wanted to be around him, that might actually love him, would be something new. Perhaps he might have the happy family he had hoped for as a bright-eyed youth.

“Late. You’ve really let yourself go,” Robert Halsted greeted him as Percival approached. The bar was a small one but they had attended it for years. Since they were training aurors, even.

The outside seemed the same, the other man waiting for him by the door.

The man threw an arm around Percival and grinned in greeting.

“Has England made you soft?” he teased and Percival kindly shoved the man into a garbage tin as they walked passed it. Robert laughed in good nature and followed Percival into the bar.

It was good to do this again.

To go out and spend time with friends. Percival hadn’t managed to make many London, usually focused on his paperwork or looking after Newt. It had been months and months since he went out and drank for leisure and not at some event.

Robert made jokes about old memories and told Percival about new developments, new cases, and new hunts.

Percival watched the singer on the little stage in the corner sing her heart out as Robert told him about a case where he ended up dueling in a cannery factory of all places.

“So there we were, covered in fish guts, wands out, telling him to surrender.”

Percival smirked into his glass. “I imagine it was a relief, to smell so fresh.” 

“Ass,” Robert shot back but grinned easily. “Honestly though, you’re missing a lot behind a desk.”

“Seraphina ask you to mention it?”

“Of course. Our esteemed leader means well. She wants to keep the best America has in America.” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered one to Percival. He didn’t often but was willing to now, loose with whiskey in his system.

“Flatterer.”

“I’d suck your cock, here and now, if I thought it would change your mind.”

Percival fought a sharp laugh at that. He lit the smoke with a single finger and a quick spell. 

“You are a married man,” he teased.

“Happily,” Robert replied and the humor in Percival died at the low blow.

“You should try it,” he added, nothing about his tone teasing or mocking. “A proper wife or husband that you want to come home to. It makes a hell of a difference.”

Percival hummed and watched the singer. He did miss New York. But he could do without all of this badgering.

“Either way, relax for once. Have some real fun,” Robert suggested, kicking Percival’s leg lightly. “That singer is beyond ready to get on your big alpha cock. Give her a go.”

Percival rolled his eyes and the other man seemed delighted with his exasperation. Percival had slept with a few women after he learned Margret was cheating on him. Very discreet meetings and always one night stands. It had felt good, in a base sexual way. But it lingered on his skin and he disliked that sensation. So he stopped. It hadn’t bothered him too much. His own hand was enough.

It was only recently.

The lingering omega scent was what distracted him and half the bar. Percival closed his eyes a moment and swore he could smell it, clean and true. He took his cigarette from his mouth and cleared his lungs to try and find the source.

Sliding his eyes open, he ran them through the room, searching.

A man, younger and slim with a trendy bob of dark hair. He looked over his shoulder and met Percival’s gaze boldly.

“Or maybe a different sort of fun?” Robert chuckled, following Percival’s gaze. “You did like the boys when you were young, didn’t you?”

“Who told you that?” Percival tore his gaze from the omega and frowned at the auror across from him. The man shrugged and Percival narrowed his gaze in thought.

“Henry Farwell,” he guessed and the other man glared at him.

“How in the blazes did you know that?”

“Only one I went to school with that runs auror circles in New York these days. We shared a room so he knew more than most about me.”

“I bet,” Robert snorted and Percival shrugged. All boys got up to things in dorm rooms, it was simply a fact. Alphas were more likely to fight than fuck, but Percival had always been more cool-headed than most.

“Either way, relax. Just for one bloody night.” 

Robert winked as he took his glass and stood, leaving just as the omega from the bar arrived to take the spot.

“Hi,” he greeted with an easy smile at Percival, a clear interest in his gaze.

Percival thought of everything waiting back home and took a pull of his cigarette before smiling in reply. 

 

Billy was a sweet thing with a meek but sly smile. He tasted like cigarettes but didn’t seem to mind that Percival was a little drunk. The night air was cold on his skin as they stepped out, but Percival felt happy to see the familiar buildings of New York.

He had truly missed his home.

“It’s nice to walk,” Billy offered lightly and Percival didn’t disagree, the city streets quiet in the evening but not empty. New York was never empty.

It made it easier to sneak up on people.

When Billy smiled and pulled Percival into a dark spot for a kiss, he went. The omega’s scent was a full heavy thing that muddled his mind a bit. Percival had never fucked a proper omega before and he was curious to explore. Tipping his head, he licked up the long pale neck, along the scent glands and he felt the omega shiver in his arms.

“You’re good at that.”

 Percival smirked.

“Hey,” the omega whispered, voice barely there. “Sorry.”

Percival couldn’t react when a spell hit him hard in the back. The omega stepped back as he fell, leaving him there. Cursing his way through the aftershocks, he tried to think. It was some sort of electricity spell that left his body trembling, his reflexes numbed.

Percival looked over his shoulder, eight men with wands out.

“You shouldn’t have threatened their family,” one of them grunted, letting Percival know who was attacking him.

One on the side tossed a coin purse to the omega, who caught it and frowned at Percival. Billy had his wand, he realized. Percival’s wand was in his one hand and the pay off in the other.

Someone cast another painful spell and Percival grit his teeth as pain laced through his back. It was hot this time, burning through his skin. Nothing quick then, they were here to torture him to death. 

“You said this was a lesson, not a murder,” Billy muttered, frowning at the lot.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Percival took another curse and twisted under the pain, tossing a hand out to throw some trash at the group. Without a wand, his magic was limited, but he managed to pull a few bricks from the side of a dilapidated wall and toss them with precise accuracy. Two of the men dropped dead.

With a pull of power, he dragged a car towards the group, making them scatter to avoid it.

Another spell caught him, trying to block six at once was impossible and it knocked Percival down on his ass hard.

Another torture spell cursed through him, ripping through his body, his bones seeming to bend out of place, slowly beginning to snap them. His right arm burst in red-hot agony.

A sudden flash of light blinded him, blinded them all, and Percival felt the moment his wand was in his hand.

He cast immediately, furiously tossing out disabling spells. His arm hung uselessly but he ignored that. Two men fell and Percival used a fire hydrant to startle another, the jet of water knocking him down. They dueled furiously but Percival had more experience without outright fighting like this. These men were used to creeping in the shadows. He sent another down hard and only two remained.

Panting for air, Percival focused utterly on them. He spelled his mind clear of alcohol and stood taller, numbing his arm and concentrating. He was tired from dueling at a disadvantage and his whole body was shivering with the aftershocks of torture.

But there were only two.

They tossed magic again, and Percival prevented both from landing. He moved swiftly to toss his own curses and charms while simultaneously blocking what was incoming. Both men attacked as one, enough of a spell to shake Percival and he glared as he slammed up a shield.

They tried again but left an opening. Percival knocked one down hard but the second used that split second to hit him. He staggered under the blow and braced for the next.

Behind the thug, Percival caught sight of the omega and when Billy raised his wand, Percival made himself move. The blow from the omega struck the man down and Percival immediately rammed a spell at him while he was distracted. A powerful one with enough punch to knock the man out cold with the rest.

Panting hard, Percival’s legs shook as he lowered himself to the cold ground.

It hurt to raise his arm to cast but he managed it.

“Seraphina, I need your help,” he breathed to his patronus and the fox dashed off.

“Well, that was impressive,” Billy offered, keeping his distance. “You want me to call someone?”

Percival glared at the omega but shook his head.

“They said they wanted to rough you up, nothing too bad. But it’s my own fault, I suppose. Should have known better to believe thugs.”

“Should have,” Percival agreed. He wanted to be on guard, but his vision was swimming. The adrenaline was fading and the agony setting in. “Fuck,” he muttered with feeling.

“I can’t imagine; those were nasty spells. I don’t know healing stuff,” the omega told him, edging closer. “You got some blood running down your nose. That’s not a good sign, is it?”

Percival managed a weak shake of his head.

Unwillingly, the black of unconsciousness bit at him. Billy closed the distance, catching him before he fell face first into the concrete. The omega cradled his head on his lap, running careful fingers through his hair as Percival faded out.

 

Percival woke in a familiar hospital bed.

He looked around to see he was in a small room with the second bed empty. Tucked away in the auror ward of the hospital where they kept trusted guards at all the doors.

He was sore but the agony of the torture spells was long gone. His arm was braced but the bone was set and healed as far as it could be with magic.

Waking up more, he turned his head and found a halo of copper hair on the bedside. Newt sat in a chair with his arms and head pillowed on the edge of his bed. The boy was fast asleep.

Percival’s arm on that side was still good so he lifted it and ran his fingers through the mess of curls. His fingers felt stiff, but they obeyed his commands. He wiggled his toes and they moved obediently, as well. Nothing felt permanently damaged.

His chart was in a folder on the wall by the door. Percival wondered if he was clear-headed enough to float it over to himself.

Margret appeared in the doorway with a cup of coffee in hand.

“I doubt that’s for me,” Percival managed, his voice only slightly mangled.

“I doubt you’ll have much more than mashed foods for a while yet. It’s been four days.”

Percival huffed, dropping his head back on his pillow.

“Did you ever wish…” He glanced at Newt to make sure he was sleeping still. “When they called you and said I was banged up in the hospital. Did you hope maybe the entire problem would just solve itself?”

Margret frowned at him, looking down at Newt.

“No. I might have resented being married but I never truly resented you. I never wished you ill like that. When they called me, it was just a reminder, really. That you were out in the streets fighting for good and I was sneaking around your back.”

Percival sighed thoughtfully at that, but a nurse appeared and soon a healer was in the room looking him over. Percival knew all the questions already and answered them dutifully, his name and personal information and then the year and current events.

Margret sipped her coffee off to the side and Newt slept on at his side.

“You’ve been well beaten and hung out to dry, but you’ll bounce back fine. Nothing long lasting. You might have some tremor from the electricity spells and some aches and pains certainly. But again, it should all heal up. You’re a tough man, Mr. Graves.”

The healer smirked easily and prescribed pain and sleeping potions with four more days in the bed. The hospital knew aurors well enough to know they didn’t take it easy once released, so they typically kept them in as long as they could. 

“The president was here, demanding the best for you,” Margret mentioned after the healer left. “She wants you in good shape, I think she has plans for you.”

“My return to New York.”

Margret nodded, looking out the window.

“I never liked it, it seems so dreary here. But I suppose many people say that of London.”

“Papa,” Newt breathed and Percival and Margret both looked as the boy lifted his head and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He sat up and hugged Percival, his weight carefully not pressing against him. Percival wrapped his good arm around him and returned the embrace.

“Hush now,” he whispered as Newt sucked in a shaky breath.

“You just laid there, for days and days.”

“Four, I’ve been told, not that long really,” Percival replied easily, dragging his hand through Newt’s hair as he sat back. He pushed his curls from his eyes and wiped a tear with his thumb. Newt leaned into Percival's touch.

“You missed the healer, everything will be fine.”

Newt shook his head.

“You were attacked, eight wizards attacked you.”

“Aurors get attacked.”

“You’re not an auror,” Newt argued.

“I was,” Percival replied, deciding not to mention the Lestrange connection. “I will be again.”

“I’ve been hurt far worse than this over the years,” he added.

“Well, I never knew. I never saw you like that before,” Newt muttered softly, his hands curling around Percival’s forearm. “And I really don’t like seeing it.”

Percival couldn’t offer much in reply so he set about sitting up properly, Newt helping him, tucking pillows behind his head carefully.

Margret was gone, the chair by the door empty.

Percival wondered where she went but didn’t worry, she was able to mind herself.

“Where have you been staying?”

“At the house. It was all closed up but I opened it. It bothered me… seeing everything covered in cloths and such. Mum said it would be easy to close up later.”

Percival nodded. “She’s right. It won’t take much. I hadn’t bothered. I only needed a room.”

Newt nodded, his fingers curling around Percival’s bare forearm again.

“You really scared me,” He confessed faintly, darting his gaze to meet Percival’s.

Before he could reply, someone filled the doorway, leaning on the door jam easily.

“Knock, knock,” was offered lightly and Percival blinked a moment before placing who it was. Billy, the omega from the attack.

“I have good timing,” he mused, carrying a bundle of flowers.

Percival supposed he should thank him. While he had led him into a trap, he’d also helped him escape it.

Billy set the flowers on a small table along the far wall, others there already along with cards in sealed envelopes.

“You’re very popular, Mr. Graves,” Billy grinned. He couldn’t have been much older than Newt, perhaps twenty at most, but he had the sort of eyes that spoke of a life that had aged him far more. He had accepted money to lure someone, knowing full well they were about to be beaten senseless.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Percival replied.

Newt sat at his side, hands on his arm still, as he watched the stranger curiously.

Billy offered Newt a smile, nothing cold or cruel, something genuine and that was enough to allow Percival to forgive him for his role in the attack.

“I’d wanted to stop by and apologize, for what it’s worth.” He slanted a look at Percival. He didn’t seem to expect forgiveness but he looked honest in his words. “And see how you’re doing. Make sure you’ll be alright?”

“I will. I don’t know much about the aftermath though.”

“Well, the president showed up with a whole group of aurors and took control of everything. Whisked you off the healer and sat me down. Then it was a long night of repeating the story over and over. I told them everything I knew and so they took off on a lead, hoping to find the root of the problem.”

Percival could appreciate the way Billy spoke, giving him the facts without going into any details with Newt sitting there.

“I think they have a good idea of the troublemakers.”

Percival nodded.

“I’m sure your auror friend will come along and give you better information than me,” he added thoughtfully.

“You’re not an auror?” Newt piped up.

“Oh heavens, bless you, sweetie. I’m no auror. I’m a friend of Mr. Graves here.” Billy spoke smoothly, not missing a beat. “Can you imagine being an auror? Chasing dark wizards and the like. It sounds a bit exciting but mostly scary, I think.”

Newt tipped his head in reply, peering at the other omega curiously, his mind working obviously. With them both in the room, Percival felt guilt twist in his stomach. There was no denying that the two looked alike.

An inappropriate amount.

Billy even had a smear of freckles, with those high cheekbones and a full mouth. It was clear he knew it too, the older American smirking knowingly at Percival.

“But enough, you must be tired. I just… I want to make sure you were alright. Gave me a right scare when you passed out.”

There was a shadow in his eyes now, a somber look Percival understood. The omega had thought he’d gotten someone killed, knowingly or not.

“The healers gave me a good outlook, assured me I’d spring back.”

“I’d believe it. You were something else out there, waving your wand like that.” Billy smiled lightly again and leaned over the bed, pressing a chaste kiss to Percival’s cheek.

“You look after him now,” he added to Newt, waving as he swept out of the room.

Newt watched him go, a tiny little frown on his face.

“How do you know him?”

Percival looked at the omega as he turned back to peer at Percival again, still a touch confused.

“I met him the night I was attacked, when I went out with an old friend.”

Newt frowned and then seemed perplexed as to why he was frowning.

Percival peered at him, taking in the dark bags under his eyes and various signs of exhaustion.

“You should get some sleep. Have you been here too much?”

Newt shook his head.

“He has. Some sleep and a proper meal would do him good,” Margret announced from the doorway. Her coat was on now, ready to go.

“Percival will need his rest as well. We should go for a bit, Newt, come again later.”

Newt’s hands squeezed Percival’s forearm, having never moved.

“Your mum’s right. Go get some sleep and eat something. There’s a delightful Italian place a few blocks from the house. Russo’s, I think it’s called. If you want to really be kind, you can bring me something, anything. I imagine the healer approved foods are going to be terribly bland.” Percival cheered lightly and Newt seemed to make the decision to go along with it. He smiled sweetly and nodded.

“Alright, we’ll see you soon. Rest, too.” Newt hugged him again, leaning down and rubbing his cheek where Billy had kissed Percival.

A territorial omega.

Percival watched them go and felt horrid for it. His mind was turning over the idea that he had been attracted to Billy because he looked like Newt. He hadn’t thought it that night, but Merlin, the resemblance had been there. Percival had tried to fuck his own boy.

A terrible twisted part of his mind whispered that Newt wasn’t his by blood.

That Newt wouldn’t scent mark Percival like that if he didn’t feel possessive.

Omegas didn’t get possessive of parents.

They did so with mates.

 

“Felt bad,” Robert admitted. “But then I heard the story. You know the one where you took down eight different dark wizards one by one. Some of them, wandless.”

Percival shrugged with his good shoulder. His skill in dueling wasn’t a secret.

“I had help,” he added.

“A little omega whore with a conscious, big help.”

“Don’t,” Percival frowned. “Don’t call him that.”

Robert put his hands up in surrender just as Newt walked through the door.

“Oh, evening, Robert.” He offered politely, coming up short and not expecting anyone to be visiting.

“Your mum let you come alone?”

Newt shook his head. He looked back just as Seraphina walked in the door.

“I brought him,” she assured smoothly.

Robert immediately sat a little straighter, slipping into a formal mask.

“Ma’am,” he greeted politely and stood up, offering his seat.

Seraphina nodded graciously and then motioned to Newt, who fumbled but immediately took the spot right beside Percival’s bed.

“I’ll see you again before you leave,” Robert offered with a wave, nodding to the president as he left.

“Almost half the senior aurors have come to visit you,” she mused as she waved a hand and pulled the second chair to his other side, a bit further than Newt’s was, more polite. The boy curled his hands around his good wrist, ever seeking contact to ground him. Percival had never hesitated to give it. 

“I grew up here, I went to school with some and others I trained with. Most of them, I worked with for years,” he pointed out reasonably and Seraphina nodded along.

“Still, they all made time to visit.”

Percival didn’t want to have the conversation with Newt there so he let it be, turning his attention to the boy.

“Did you manage anything?”

Newt bit his lip nervously, glancing at Seraphina before slipping a hand into his pocket and pulling out a handkerchief.

“I think they're catching on, the healers.” Newt warned him.

“I’m leaving tomorrow, they can catch all they want,” he reassured him. He unfolded the piece of material and found a nice stack of little square chocolates with a dusting of salt on top of them.

“Salted caramels,” Percival declared with a fond smile at Newt, who obviously knew Percival enjoyed them.

“We went to the wizarding streets, today. They had a chocolate shop on the corner.”

“Amsler’s, I used to go there as a boy,” Percival provided, picking a sweet and biting down with relish.

“Really now?” Seraphina raised a brow and Percival didn’t care in the least. Hospital food was bland as hell and Percival liked good food, he enjoyed eating.

“If you’re going to be rude, you don’t need any,” Percival mock teased, offering the pile to Newt with a flourish. Smiling at the light banter, Newt accepted one. He gently took a bite from the end, his tongue swiping the bit of chocolate on his lip into his mouth.

“Salty and sweet, I’ve never understood it.”

Percival shook his head with a sigh. “Poor lad, you’re missing a delightful mix.”

Newt smiled again, eyes laughing.

“Is your wife helping you home tomorrow?” Seraphina asked, a peculiar expression on her face.

“Yes, her and Newt will be here right sharp at eight when the healer comes to give me a clean bill of health.”

“Good. Will you head back to London right away?”

Percival nodded.

“Work is waiting and Newt needs to get back to school. I suspect Margret will want to return to her trip as well.”

“I’m staying home for the rest of the year actually,” Newt admitted shyly. “I’ll go write my exams in the spring, but mum and I thought it would be best.”

Percival’s mind immediately jumped to Leta Lestrange. Newt trusted her and they hadn’t talked about who attacked Percival yet. He couldn’t ignore the relief he felt that Newt wouldn’t be near her in the immediate future. Margret knew the source of the attack so that must have been the reason to keep Newt at home.

“Will that be ok?” The omega asked, glancing up at Percival with a touch of worry.

“Of course, whatever is best for you,” he reassured warmly, turning his arm under Newt’s hold so he could take his hand and squeeze it.

Newt smiled again and Percival returned it briefly.

When he felt her gaze, he looked to Seraphina and found her watching him oddly again.

“I won’t see you after this visit then,” she finally said, moving on.

“You should know, Percival, that a job waits for you here and you are needed.” She announced, ignoring his dark look. Newt didn’t need to hear this. “You were attacked and at a disadvantage. Eight wizards all with intimidating records and you fought them all off with minor injuries. You’re utterly wasted behind a Ministry desk.”

Percival wished she would leave it be, but he also knew she was right. It had been so long since he had a proper duel. While the dangers of the moment had been clear, Percival had still felt exhilarated. He liked to fight, to duel others and to chase down evil. It sat good in his chest that those men would never be able to harm again. His ministry desk job offered none of that.

 

Percival was glad for the nice oversized bed in the house and slept well when he returned to it. Hospitals were always quiet in a terrible sort of way, the knowledge that people all around him were fighting to heal or slowly dying in the back of his mind. The house was also heavily warded, there was no one slipping in unnoticed here. It felt good to be in his childhood home and he felt something in him relax. 

So he slept deeply.

And woke to a lump under the blankets.

Percival frowned, wondering if he’d taken too much pain relief potion.

The little lump scurried though and Percival realized it was something actually there. His wand was at his bedside, but he had enough strength to use wandless magic to grab the uninvited guest. Percival pulled the blanket aside to reveal a niffler of all things.

The door creaked a moment later, Newt peeking in and looking mortified to see Percival had the beast.

“A friend of yours?”

Newt nodded, slipping in quietly and indicating his mother wasn’t aware of the creature. There was no worry, Margret was out somewhere.

“I found him here actually, in the house.”

Percival frowned, wondering what sort of family heirlooms the little beast had stolen. 

“You didn’t mention him because?”

“Nifflers are considered pests, they do one thing with pests,” Newt admitted, carefully picking up the petrified creature and setting it in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“I had thought to take him home, to set him free in the countryside where they live naturally.”

Percival frowned at the little monster, its beady eyes staring back.

“Did you find its nest?”

Newt nodded quickly, excited that Percival was at least considering it.

“I left it for now, so I know where to find him. But I’ll clean it up before we leave.”

Percival hummed and held out a hand for the beast. After a moment Newt gave him up. Percival knew the trick from an old wizarding area in New York that had been infested with nifflers. He took the beast by its back paws in one hand and undid the petrification spell. The little thing wiggled but Percival was able to tickle it easily enough.

Silverware and jewelry immediately trickled out, old pocket watches and smaller decorative pieces from the collections in the house.

“Oh! Where did you learn that?” Newt watched raptly.

“Auror tricks,” Percival replied, eyeing the loot. “It’s all from the house, it must be trapped here. Perhaps the wards locked it in.”

Newt nodded.

“It’s been eating bugs in the attic and all the plants in the indoor garden.”

Percival was surprised that the garden survived, but it was spelled to and someone did check on the house monthly.

“You’ll have to get a proper paper for it, submit the form to take it home.”

Newt bit his lip worriedly. “Will they let me?”

“America will be glad to get rid of him. England will have to accept him as he is one of their natives.”

Percival talked Newt through the paperwork needed, keeping a hold of the frustrated niffler that was reaching for his lost pile of treasure.

Percival eventually let him keep a fork and sent Newt off with his little pet. The boy hesitated at the door, looking down at the niffler as it inspected the shining silver fork.

“…I’m sorry,” he breathed and Percival watched him. He knew what it was about immediately.

“I know. I am, too. We’ll have arguments sometimes; all people do.”

Newt hugged the little beast to his chest, chewing his lip.

“I’m not… I do hear things and I can make deductions. Everyone is tiptoeing but some aurors at the hospital didn’t know better. Leta’s family is involved with this. You were attacked because of me-”

“Because I threatened someone I knew was dangerous. I acted stupidly and so, answered for it. Most aurors just starting out know better than that.”

“Then… why did you do it?”

Percival sighed, looking out the bedroom window for a moment. Admitting one’s stupidly was probably a good lesson for others. 

“I was angry, I let it control me.”

“Because of what I did?”

There was no point denying it. Percival nodded.

“You were angry I lied,” Newt confirmed, mostly to himself than Percival, it seemed.

“I was disappointed you lied, you know better than that. I was angry… I was angry because you didn’t trust me.”

“I trust you,” Newt immediately corrected and Percival shook his head. He was still sore and he hated that he was propped up in a bed for this conversation. Potions took the edge off the pain but also slowed his reactions

“I don’t think you do. You tried to lie to me in the beginning and when pushed, you refused to stand with me, to confirm the truth.”

Percival wondered if Newt was old enough for such conversations.

“Your mother and I don’t have the best relationship. We haven’t in a very long time. A part of it is similar, lying and not trusting one another. You reminded me a great deal of her when you sat there, chin raised stubbornly, willing to lie for someone you loved. I suppose that upset me, to see that similarity. I know I’ve been a poor father to you, but I am trying. But I don’t think I can stand it, if you began to treat me like your mother does.” 

Newt stood absolutely still in the doorway, looking out down the hall.

“Theseus Scamander is my father by blood. Mum won’t admit it, but it’s pretty obvious.” Newt announced quietly.

Percival didn’t try to lie to the boy.

“He used to visit, you know, when I was little. He’d come by and mum would insist I spend time with him.”

That hurt, Percival’s chest twisting possessively.

“I never understood it until I was older, until you started to come into my life more. Mum always said you were busy chasing dark wizards and protecting innocent people. She made you sound… she made you a hero, I suppose.”

Newt looked down and then tipped his head towards Percival, glancing at him with a nervous air.

“I was relieved,” he confessed in a tiny whisper. He broke his gaze and looked down at the niffler, fiddling with the beast at it squirmed in his grip.

“When I found out, when I realized you weren’t my actual father.”

That stung even worse, Percival was suddenly not ready for this horrid conversation. For the idea of staying in New York and sending his wife and not-son to London on their own. For the divorce to come much sooner then he planned. 

“You just… We would sit and read together and I would curl up with you and…” Newt blinked away tears.

“I used to steal your shirts and curl up in them at night. I told myself it was because it comforted me. But I got older and I knew it had nothing to do with comfort. I… I liked the way you smelt. I liked the way you smiled and the sound of your voice and the way you would touch me. A hand on my back or fingers through my hair. I knew… what I was feeling was wrong and it made me so wrong. Leta… She knew and she would tell me it was fine, that pureblood families often… felt that way. But I knew the truth. When I realized mum was cheating, I was so mad at her for not wanting… what I did. So badly.” Newt squeezed his eyes closed and wiped away tears with his shirt sleeve. The niffler in his hold was still, watching the omega curiously. The little beast seemed endeared already to the boy.

“So when I learned who Theseus Scamander was and that it meant… I was relieved. I was so... glad.”

Newt huffed out a long breath, seeming exhausted with the confession.

“When you say you don’t want me to be like mum, you don’t realize how silly that is. Because I’m nothing like mum when it comes to you. I…I want so much from you and it doesn’t even matter what happens in the end because... just being with you makes me happy. You make me happy and I always want to listen to you. It’s not that I don’t trust you… It’s that I don’t trust myself to be sensible around you.”

Newt startled badly when the door downstairs opened, his mum calling out to him to come help with the bags. The poor boy’s face was a deep red and it was clear that he had been crying, was still crying a bit. Wide-eyed, he wiped at his face harshly, stumbling from the doorway with one last fleeting glance at Percival.

“Coming! Just a moment,” he called to his mother, his voice straining to sound normal.

Percival just sat there, feeling very much dazed as he listened to Newt tuck the niffler into his room before going to help his mother.

 

They made the trip back to London. The portkey left Percival exhausted due to his injuries and he practically fell into his bed when they arrived at the house. He knew it was his body recovering more than anything else, but he did feel rather old at that moment.

“Do you need anything?”

Percival looked up, sitting up from where he had laid back on his bed for a bit. Newt was at the door, face a bit red as he peered at the floor. They could hear his mother downstairs.

“I’m fine, just need a moment’s rest,” he assured quietly.

Newt smiled in reply, nodding before stepping away. “I’m going to get Fergus settled.”

Percival watched him go, the mess between them a hundred times more complicated suddenly. They hadn’t talked about what Newt had confessed. There had been no real time to. The boy seemed to prefer not to, acting as if the moment had never happened. He smiled lightly and pretended as if everything was perfectly normal. But it was clear to Percival now that Newt was more than what was on the surface. While he had always thought the omega to be an open book, it was obvious there was far more. Percival had been so wrapped up in his own emotions that he had never stopped to think of Newt’s own.

Too young, his mind simply told him over and over.

Margret, as Percival predicted, was still focused on her trip down to Spain.

“It won’t be an issue?” She asked a second time at dinner, looking between Newt and Percival. Part of him knew he should ask her to stay, that she should be there while Percival sorted himself out. But he also knew that Newt was not going to have a proper conversation with him if his mother was around to overhear it. 

“I’m just going to focus on my school work, to catch up and make sure I don’t fall behind.” The boy offered easily, not seeming the least bit worried to be alone with Percival after saying all that he had.

The fact that Newt had brought a niffler home never came up either. That was likely part of it as Percival was almost certain that Margret had no idea of the beast. Percival, honestly, was too distracted to drag up the issue. Margret didn’t like beasts in the house and would have much to say on the matter. It was just easier to let her leave unknowing, the niffler would be gone before she returned. Percival wasn’t sure he could handle another fight, not with his mind whirling over all things Newt. 

 

“Will he be able to burrow in the winter?” Newt worried over the little beast. The niffler was kept in his room with a strong charm from Percival. The little pest was ruining Newt’s furniture on a daily basis, but it was good practice for the boy to fix it all. Percival supervised him as he borrowed his wand. It answered to Newt well enough, surprisingly. Percival's wand was usually more picky. 

“We’ll have to dig one out for him, pack it with some shiny objects so he stays and enough food to get him to spring.”

Percival may have read up on the creatures.

Newt looked delighted that he knew that much.

It felt like old times, but it was so vastly different. Everything about Newt’s soft smile was charged with something more. Percival had no real idea how to react.

They made plans shortly after Margret left to take a trip into the countryside on the weekend. Nifflers would wreak houses so keeping it was not a real option, it needed to be released and quickly. Percival was glad to have the beast to focus on. 

“I’ll miss him,” Newt sighed as they took a motor carriage out of London. Percival had decided against a faster magical method, deciding to see some of the countryside and making a trip out of it. He hadn’t really thought that he would be trapped in a tiny carriage with Newt for hours. The niffler was packed in a roomy crate on the floor between them, lined with thick dirt and packed into something like a burrow. Newt had decided to take out some of his savings, a small bit he had earned over the years mainly to teach him about money. He took it all in coins and shined each one before lining the burrow.

For days he would shine a coin and place it in a spot only for the niffler to rush over and set it a quarter of an inch to the right.

Either way, the beast was building the burrow more than Newt and so, it was far more likely to stay put within it. It managed to steal, of course, bits and pieces from around the house, shiny trinkets and such. Anything like keys or Margret’s jewelry was taken back but some he was allowed to keep.   

Now the niffler had itself a home and it was content to sit within as they traveled. Newt had brought jars for dried grass and seeds as well. Some nuts as a treat that he thought Percival hadn’t noticed. It was more than enough food to get the little pest into the spring.

“I’ve never really traveled England properly,” Newt mused, looking out the windows curiously. Snow was falling but the machine was a wizard’s so it remained steady on the road and warm to the touch.

“Neither have I. I should make time while I’m here,” Percival mused and Newt smiled.

“It would be fun, we could make trips like this,” he suggested and Percival nodded mostly to see his boy’s excited look.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the forests and areas where the beasts live. Mum never wants to and she won’t let me go alone, too dangerous.”

Percival thought about it, wandering dangerous forests in search of likely dangerous beasts, all so Newt could coo at them and take notes. It shouldn’t sound as fun as it did, but he liked the idea of getting out of the city and actually doing something with a bit of risk. Percival was certain he could protect Newt if the need arose. Perhaps they could, if he could just ignore this new thing between them. If Percival could ignore the way Newt looked at him when he thought he wasn’t looking. 

“Maybe. It would be interesting if nothing else.”

Newt smiled warmly, looking out the window with a content air about him. Percival couldn’t help but want to give that to him, he just wanted the boy happy.

 

Fergus the niffler left them with little ruckus.  

They stopped for the night in a little village and trekked out into the snow-covered hills. Newt took the longest time to find the ‘perfect’ spot, but he did eventually. Percival waved his wand and dug out a hole in the frozen ground, settling the crate into it. He covered it with care, leaving a tunnel that the niffler could come and go from. Once it was in place he opened the crate underground, vanishing the one side so the niffler would know the temperature around him. The rest of the crate was charmed to remain warm. Really if the beast didn’t make it to summer, he didn’t deserve to continue his species.

“Take care, Fergus,” Newt sighed softly, waving as the beast poked his nose out of the hole and immediately scurried back into the warmth.

“It’s for the best,” Percival offered gently. “He’ll be happiest where he is free, won’t he?”

Newt nodded. “In the spring he can find a mate so he’s not alone here.”

“Exactly.” Percival reached out and flicked some snow off Newt’s curls without thinking. He paused in the act, thinking he shouldn’t but did it anyway. The last thing he wanted was to make Newt feel awkward. “Let's go find somewhere to eat and stay the night.”

The inn was tiny but it was a wizard’s inn and so, had all the amenities expected. Newt enjoyed the change, looking around the small common room and trying the food without complaint. It wasn’t amazing, but it was warm and decent so Percival ate plentifully as well.

The room was a single with two old beds, but they were spelled clean and not a mouse was to be found.

“We can drive back to the city or take the floo tomorrow, we’ll decide after breakfast,” he told Newt and the boy yawned, pulling off his shirt without any embarrassment. It reminded Percival that Newt was in a shared dorm. The boy stripped down quickly, pulling a sleeping shirt out of his bag and over his body. Percival wondered if Newt was as innocent as he seemed. Stripping down so brazenly seemed impossible for the shy boy and yet, he just had done so easily. Either he was so used to sharing a room that it didn’t register to be shy, or he was intentionally showing Percival his lean pretty body. Percival made sure not to look as he changed as well, pulling his clothing off with more care before sliding into a sleeping shirt. He had spared a moment’s thought to change in the bathroom but decided against it. Playing it as if everything was fine seemed to be the best option. Let Newt outgrow his little crush and then one day they could look back and laugh about it.   

Percival absently charmed the bed warm before sliding between the sheets.

“Not fair,” Newt called, crawling from his own bed to get into Percival’s with him, snuggling down into the heat with a sigh. Their bodies pressed close but they often did when they read together, even now. It wasn’t unusual and Percival reminded himself that. If Newt acted inappropriately, he would gently reproach him and explain that he was young and had no real idea what he wanted.

But he was of age, something terrible whispered at Percival. Omegas Newt’s age were marrying already. The age difference wasn’t even unusual either. Many older alphas paid an obscene amount of wealth to have young omegas to bear them families. To have them in their bed and under them.

Percival forced the thoughts away, making himself relax and trying to summon sleep. 

“You should be learning warming spells already,” Percival pointed out but also shifted to accommodate the boy a bit more.

“We are,” Newt yawned, “But we don’t have use of wands outside of school,” he reminded.

Percival hummed in agreement, watching Newt drift off quickly. He did seem to genuinely fall asleep, blankets pulled snug around him.

The light flickered low and Percival knew he should sleep but it seemed more pressing to lay there and watch the weak light play in the copper color of Newt’s hair.

The issue wasn’t Newt, of course.

Youths often developed fascinations with various people in their lives. A large part of being a teenager was falling in and out of love. Omegas did tend to do so less, often picking a single individual and bonding with them. But they were still youths and had growing to do. Sometimes, an alpha would marry an omega and help guide them, protecting them from the world until they could face it. A hundred years ago, it was common but in the new age, things were changing. Omegas and young women weren’t being married off immediately. The wizarding community was moving far more rapidly than the nomaj in social issues. But in some, they did falter. Some families, old ones, liked the traditional ways. Arranged marriage still occurred commonly.

Young omegas still married older alphas.

Newt wasn’t the problem.

Percival was.

Because the boy was achingly beautiful and he had such a sweet smile. When he was talking about his creatures, he lit up. Percival adored the boy and he knew it wasn’t completely platonic. Newt was growing up. Right now, he was too young, too childlike for Percival to feel any real lust. But that would change.

Percival was doing everything in him to ignore that fact, to pretend it would remain the same as always.

 

Fate and his body seemed to think he was an idiot so they decided to treat him to a rather crude lesson. Newt’s body was young, but it was of age and thus scented. Percival had an unmated omega curled around him and so when he woke, he was erect. It made him feel like the worst sort of alpha and he berated himself for a long moment. Thankfully, Newt was still asleep so Percival gently slid from the bed and slunk to the loo to deal with it.

Glaring at his erection was doing nothing to help so Percival tipped the door closed firmly and took hold of himself. A quick wank and then it would be dealt with. 

Percival imagined someone pretty, slender and fit, warm skin and soft sighs. He thought of a pretty omega he had when he was younger. The image twisted, Billy under him now, moaning as Percival slammed into him.

Clenching his teeth, Percival aimed for finish quickly, the release rising. Unbidden images came in those last seconds, of Newt on his back with his thighs spread, whimpering for more. His pale freckled skin bared for Percival to see, his sweet eyes peeking up from under his lashes.

The alpha grunted, swallowing a curse as he came, splatters of semen pumping down into the toilet.

Sucking in a heavy breath, he leaned back, the room small and so there was a wall behind him. He sagged against it and tried to banish the unwanted image of Newt spread out so lewdly.

He was a boy, a child. Only fifteen. He was Percival’s bloody son, a boy he helped raise. He had held Newt in his arms when he was first born. 

Percival was a monster.

Berating himself, he cleaned his hands and the mess, trying to wash away the unwelcomed desire.

As soon as he left the bathroom, he realized he hadn’t imagined the sweet scent of an omega at all.

Newt was still laid out on the bed, curled up in sleep but the room reeked and thus betrayed him. His young omega slick was like a beacon in the small room. Newt was awake and he was sexually excited.

Percival realized too late that he hadn’t put up a sound charm. Newt had to have heard him. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to think of something to say or do. Newt smelt divine, but he was so young and too pure. He needed a mate to suit that.

Percival called his bag to his side and dressed efficiently. He got ready for the day, trying to ignore the call the omega in the bed was giving.

Once he was ready, he hesitated, glancing at the bed and the tip of Newt’s hair. The rest of him was hidden away under the blankets.

Percival almost spoke, said something to acknowledge that he knew the boy was awake.

But the nerve left him and so he quietly left the room, heading downstairs for an early breakfast.

 

Newt appeared an hour later, freshly showered and scrubbed. There was a pinkness about his face, his ears red. His lower lip was swollen up as if he had bitten it raw. He probably thought he was being subtle, but it was glaringly obvious to Percival that Newt had masturbated after he left.  

“I think we should floo back today, the weather is a bit heavy,” Percival suggested as Newt looked over the menu. The boy blinked and looked out the window where the storm truly was building.

“Alright. Do you think Fergus will be alright?”

It was easy to play along, to pretend that hadn’t happened at all.

 

They went home and continued along as they always as. Only now, Percival was acutely aware of how close Newt sat beside him, of how often the omega leaned close. He was no better, reaching out constantly, a hand on Newt’s back or waist, leaning in far too close to speak.

Percival had become perverse.

His mind tortured him with the idea that if he did cross such a line, Newt would welcome him.

 

The entire mess only seemed to dig deeper with time. Each second weekend, they would make trips out into the countryside and magical areas of Great Britain. With no small amount of glee, Newt encountered a variety of creatures in the flesh for the first time. The Bowtruckle, Porlock, and Augurey were the more safer creatures to seek out, while their encounter with a Hebridean Black Dragon had Percival reading up on the local creatures and how to handle them.

Despite his own self-awareness of the dangerous line they were walking, Percival couldn’t stop the trips. It was clear Newt enjoyed them a great deal. His meek shell seemed to melt away when a magical creature was nearby. Immediately, he was pulling out a book and trying to name the beast. Percival knew of few things that lit Newt’s eyes quite the same. He never did or said anything inappropriate either, always the proper young boy. Beyond that mess, they were entertaining outings for Percival as well. It felt good to escape the city and wander the lush countryside. Gorgeous views of green hills and endless cliff sides. His body ached in the best way after a day of wandering steep forests or clamoring down slippery knolls. It made Percival realize how little he had done outside work the last few years. So they continued the trips well into late summer.

When they were out in the thick of things, it also gave him time to teach Newt magic. While he was too young to have his wand yet, he could observe and learn the incantations, the kind that would actually help him one day. Charms to locate where they were on maps or via the stars, how to spark a reasonably sized fire and how to cast a ward around them to avoid being snuck up on by some hungry thing.

 

“Do you think we’ll see a Common Welsh Green Dragon tomorrow?” Newt mused with an anticipating glint in his gaze. They were on the edge of a smaller village in Wales for the evening, intending to spend the day out and tomorrow, walking the nearby forestry.

“With any good luck, we’ll see little more than bowtruckles and a gnome or two.”

“Maybe a unicorn,” Newt insisted with a smile.

“A knarl, even a doxy.” 

Newt outright smiled, fighting a laugh as the waitress arrived with their meal. She smiled easily enough at them both but her gaze flicked between them in a certain way. Newt seemed unaware so Percival ignored it, thanking her for the meal. She wasn’t the first stranger to think they were likely married rather than related.

Percival just ignored it, but he was keenly aware of it at the same time.  

Newt seemed utterly oblivious.

They ate a late dinner and left the common room for their hotel room.

As he had always, Percival rented a room with two beds.

And just had he had the first time, Newt always abandoned his bed to crawl in with Percival.

Nothing ever happened. Most nights Percival didn’t let himself get too worried about it. It was a harmless thing. The bed sharing was almost purely out of comfort, that basic human urge to touch and be touched. Newt would curl up close, a leg touching or fingers on Percival’s arm. A tender thing that Percival didn’t have in him to take away from the boy. So they would curl up and rest, Percival could admit he liked sleeping with someone. He was used to being alone and had thought sharing his bed would be troublesome. But Newt fit into the bed without stealing blankets or pillows. They shared well it seemed.

Come morning Percival would wake first, a trait he was grateful for.

Because pure notions aside, Newt was an unmated omega and Percival was an alpha without a mate either. More often than not, Percival woke hard. But he refused to punish Newt for that, refused to stop sharing a bed simply because of his body betraying him. 

He took care of himself quietly in the morning, locked in the bathroom with charms to block sound and scent. Most mornings, Newt slept through it. But four times now he had feigned sleep as his scent filled the room. It was sticky sweet, almost too much and with a heady call to it, an urge to come and mate.

Percival left the room every time those morning, eating early and reading local papers to pass the time. It was unspoken between them, but Newt was no fool. He had to be aware on some level of this inappropriate… urge building between them. Newt had confessed he wanted Percival sexually and now Percival’s body was giving Newt all the signs that he was interested. But such a thing would not happen, Percival refused to let it.

The best thing for it was disregarding it, he had decided. Not the most brilliant reaction but the only one he could offer up. Percival didn’t know how to stop his body from what it was doing and he certainly had no intention to have a conversation about it. The sheer idea of sitting Newt down to explain that his father figure was dealing with some semi-incestuous urges after learning Newt had his own was ludicrous. Hence the decision to ignore.

Come morning, Percival woke hard as expected. Newt pressed up against him tightly, however, was not the norm. The omega was curled on his side facing Percival who was spread out on his back. The boy was using his bicep as a pillow, face pressed in, skin on skin. His one thigh was pressed to Percival’s hip, their sleeping shirts up and bare legs touching all the way down.

All of this, however, seemed unimportant in the fact that Newt was currently masturbating.

Tiny little noises, muffled and meek, were filling the room. Just the barest of motions, Newt’s leg rocking gently, let Percival know what was happening. He kept his eyes firmly closed, being the one playing at sleeping now.

Newt huffed, rubbing his cheek on Percival’s arm softly, his lower lip brushing skin. The contact was so completely unspoiled and deliciously sexual. Puffing in slightly held breaths, Newt whimpered once, a tiny long thing as the bed shook only for a moment. A wet, slick sound as the omega trembled and released. He relaxed into the bed after a moment, pressing in closer to Percival, his nose at Percival’s underarm. 

Scenting, Percival comprehended.

Newt was scenting him, something highly inappropriate for anyone not in a sexual relationship. The boy might as well be rubbing his crotch.

His mind was turning over wildly as Newt rubbed his cheek on Percival’s arm, marking him lightly. He was putting his scent on Percival so other omegas would know the alpha was his. After a moment longer, Newt sighed gently and then he slipped from the bed, footsteps padding softly to the bathroom. Once the door closed, Percival opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, hoping for some magical answer to float down.

The water ran as Newt began a shower to clean himself and Percival needed, badly, to use the facilities as well.

His cock throbbed and Percival was a pervert of the worst kind, preying on such a sweet, young boy. He turned his head into the pillow, rolling to the side to try and ignore his erection.

His thigh found the wet spot.

Without thinking about it, Percival reached down and ran his fingers over the area. It was warm and slippery. There was a bit of clear slick on his fingers, Newt’s slick.

Percival huffed a low sound, muttering to his ancestors to forgive him. Feeling distinctly wrong, he took himself in hand as he scented his fingers. The faint call still lingered. Newt’s scent. Percival stoked himself roughly, rushing to finish as he tried to ignore his morals. Newt was such a sweet thing, but he was growing up so fast, was so bloody pretty.

The omega had just masturbated in bed with him, had scented Percival while doing it. He’d likely masturbate to the idea of Percival fucking him.

He spilled with a muffled groan, pressing his face into the pillow as he messed his sleep shirt and the sheets. Rolling on his back and deciding to really let his decency go, Percival licked his fingers. It was hard to explain the taste, something almost sweet but not, an almost hint of bitterness. But it was all Newt, as if his scent had been transformed into a taste. There was nothing to compare it to really.

Percival dragged his fingers over the small wet spot again, gathering every last bit of slick and lapping it down like a bloody dog.  

Panting a bit, he kicked off the covers and got up. Calling his wand, he cleaned the bed and opened the window to air the room as he dressed for the day, determined to be better. Merlin, he’d just licked the sheets clean. It was a whole new low and Percival really was losing control of the situation.

 

As luck would have it, they ran into, not only a weary and very powerful unicorn, but a mated pair of dragons, both feeling distinctly territorial.

Newt laughed breathlessly as they cleared the forest and the dragon roars faded. He gasped for air as Percival dropped onto the ground, sucking in his own breath. That had been a closer than usual call. Both dragons were right eager to see them out of their space.

But it had also been magnificent.

Percival had never seen a dragon that close. The other one from earlier in the spring had been from a safe distance. These had been mere feet away. The heat from their flames had been intense.

A wild laugh bubbled up in his chest and Newt answered just as brightly, flopping onto the ground and rolling onto his back.

“They were gorgeous,” he breathed and Percival could only nod.

“They really were.”

 

“Mum, it was this close,” Newt explained when they returned to London, the boy retelling the story at the dinner table for his mother. He held his arms out lengthwise to show her, his face open and animated.

“I could feel the heat from it. If the unicorn hadn’t decided to charge, that dragon would have had me.”

His mother made a worried sound.

“But I don’t think he would have. He was just worried was all, I bet anything they had a nest somewhere around there. They left us alone once we were on the move,” he looked to Percival for confirmation and he nodded indulgently. He could feel a smile pulling at his face as he watched Newt, so alive with his adventures.

“The scale sizes were bigger than a fist so it was probably a young adult, might have been their first nest even,” Newt mused thoughtfully. 

“I haven’t seen Great Britain in a long time, you make me miss it. I’ll have to come along with you two, on these hunting outings.” 

Newt’s smile didn’t dim at all but Percival could feel the shift in it.

“It’s not hunting, we don’t trap or hurt them, we’re just observing,” he clarified and his mother smiled at him.

There was still a bit of unease between them. Newt was never completely comfortable with his mother as he used to be, but they did talk and did things together. They seemed close, still. But there was a space and they all knew it.

But while Margret brought that small inch of discomfort with her when she joined them, she also brought an air of mindfulness. For the last few trips before Newt returned to school, his mother came and shared a room with him. Percival was left in a room on his own without having to deal with improper urges and soft sweet bodies pressed close to his. He thought too much of the morning when Newt touched himself against Percival. The thought of the scents and sounds, of the warmth of the skin pressed against his own.

Percival thought far too often, how easy it would have been to reach over to the boy. 

 

It was a good thing that Newt was sent off to school in the fall. He was young and he needed someone to give his attention to, someone closer to his own age. Despite knowing that, Percival deeply hoped that Newt would avoid Leta Lestrange. Her father currently was under investigation for the attack Percival had fought off last year. Newt had assured him he would, that their friendship would not continue as it endangered their family. Percival hoped the boy had meant it, he could only trust the omega. 

Thankfully, the year went by without any dangers. Newt was caught with numerous beasts hidden away and pulled out of the forbidden forest more than a handful of times. But in the end, he made it through the year and did well on his grades. He faithfully reported that Leta kept her distance from him and he, in turn, avoided her. Charges were laid against her father, Scamander, of all people, hounding the Lestrange family. But Percival supposed he was trying to keep his lover and secret son safe.

 

Newt returned home a bit taller, his body filling out slowly. Percival had noticed it at Christmas but in the spring, it stood out even more. The omega was strikingly beautiful and growing into it. He no longer looked like a child. The more he grew up, the more Percival found himself unintentionally watching him. The omega scent to mate was a base call and it could be ignored. But the more the scent matured and the more Newt looked like a proper adult, Percival found himself thinking inappropriately.

Newt was an omega and part of that came with a body type, similar to a woman’s. Wide hips and slender shoulders, built to carry young. Newt didn’t develop facial hair, he stayed smooth.

On one warm spring morning, the youth wandered from bed still in his sleeping shirt. With his mother gone, Newt let proper rules go to the wind and Percival honestly didn’t care. He wondered then if he should have. With Newt’s shirt hanging open gapingly, his bare smooth chest with a smear of freckles was on display. He legs, as well, the shirt almost scandalously high. Once more, he was smooth-skinned with delicate ankles that Percival kept getting distracted by.

They settled at the table for an informal breakfast, Newt pouring a criminal amount of honey on his pancakes. He licked his sticky fingers and Percival could feel his cock perking up as he watched that pink tongue run along long, delicate fingers.

“Mum wants me to go to on her trip with her after she gets back. See Austria, Hungary, and Romania.”

Percival hummed in agreement. Margret had mentioned it already. She had also mentioned some young alphas she had lined up to introduce to Newt over the summer. At sixteen, he was of age to begin courting. More than that though, Margret knew something was going on between Percival and Newt. She never suggested a thing but the way she watched them interact spoke volumes. She wanted to take Newt all summer so he would be kept from Percival.

He honestly couldn’t fault her for that.

“It would be a good trip, a good chance to see a variety of creatures.”

Newt nodded, his smile fading a bit.

“I figured I would visit you both when I could,” Percival added without thinking. He had no such plans but the words brought the smile to Newt’s face in full force again. Percival wondered if there was anything he would not do to make Newt happy.

“Mum is great, but she’s… careful. She never wants to venture too far into the forests and refuses to explore caves.”

Percival shook his head, as if this was some great disappointment.

Newt smirked again at his light teasing.  

“I know most sensible people would react that way. That’s why it’s nice to go with you.”

“Are you suggesting I’m senseless?”

Newt fought an outright grin, dropping his chin to his chest to hide it. He shifted on his chair, sitting at Percival’s side so he could just see a hint of thigh as the shirt pulled up.

“I’ll see you then?”

“Of course,” Percival assured him, feeling weak and knowing he was fighting a losing battle.

 

Over the summer, Percival visited them only three times. When he might have made it more often, he chose not to. He was far too aware of Newt. The youth was coming of age and Percival’s body was achingly aware of it. To make matters worse, so were other alphas. There was a time when no one paid Newt much mind, the quiet and shy boy slipping through crowds as a ghost at Percival’s side. He preferred it that way. Now, he unwillingly shone like a beacon.

He was gorgeous to be blunt. His copper hair with the hint of a curl, always left messy but endearingly so. Newt had grown into his face, high cheekbones, and a full mouth. Soft freckles dotting his pale skin fetchingly. The kind of face one could stare at for a time. Merlin be kind when Newt chewed his lip, pulling the fat bottom lip between his teeth and nipping it red and swollen.  

Social situations had always made the boy nervous, people made him uneasy in a way that never faded. Newt learned to push past it in order to be polite, but he rarely made eye contact with strangers. So he never noticed how alphas liked to stare at him, never seemed to pick up the desire he drew out.

Percival found himself glaring often, meeting the eyes of alphas and staring them down. While Percival was ashamed of the inappropriate want he felt for the boy, he also knew he would never act on it. That Newt’s wellbeing was more important to him then some base lust that his alpha body was trying to shove at him. But other alphas had no such moral restraint. They looked at Newt like he would be delicious or a fun plaything. Like they wanted to use him.

It made Percival’s lip want to curl in a snarl.

Tina Goldstein was a young American alpha Newt met on his trip. She was easy to spook and nervous, but there was an underlining determination in her gaze. She was an alpha coming into her own. When Percival met her gaze, she would lift her head and meet his challenge.

“I do like her,” Newt told him when they were up in the rooms. Margret was already off to bed, leaving Percival and Newt in the main room. There were, of course, two more separate rooms for each of them.

Percival was visiting them for a weekend in Romania. While it was clear Newt was disappointed Percival didn’t visit as often as he suggested, the boy didn’t press him. Margret was ever wary with Percival but also delighted with Tina, inviting her to everything and pushing the two youths together.

“She seems nice,” Percival allowed.

“She’s from New York,” Newt added with a smile. “Her accent reminds me a bit of you. She wants to be an auror as well.”

Percival resisted a scoff to be compared to the young woman and Newt smiled sly at him, seeing the reaction.

“Your mother is very happy.”

Newt nodded.

“I’ve met a lot of alphas my age this trip. She made me promise to keep in touch with some of them.”

“Friends are good,” Percival suggested with a softer tone. He reached out and tugged one of Newt’s too long curls. The boy would need a haircut soon, he mused. 

“I know.”

 

The next morning, they were set to go out exploring a forest known for sightings of the rare Graphorn which also happened to be very large and very aggressive.

“Mum refused to let me even set foot without you,” Newt admitted with a shrug. “She said she wants absolutely nothing to do with it.”

“She mentioned Tina was joining us,” Percival remarked. Margret would have never allowed them on their own without someone else.

“She was supposed to, but she said she couldn’t suddenly. I hope she’s not ill or anything unfortunate.”

Percival glanced at Newt, trying to read his worried expression, looking for any sort of hint of a lie. Had the girl even been invited? Percival was very much aware that Newt felt a bit cheated. Percival had promised to visit and he had done the bare minimum. They’d spend very little time together this year and even less alone.

The idea of Newt plotting seemed silly though, as if such a sweet boy could do such a thing.

 

Despite a long day of looking, they were unable to find the graphorn. They found countless other creatures, including an alarming number of dragons.

“There’s a sanctuary around here. It makes sense that some would get loose or breed in the wild. It’s a protected area, thankfully,” Newt explained as they watched a pair of dragons further up the mountain. Thankfully, a good long distance away. Percival and Newt were both laid out on a flat stable spot along the cliffs, hidden with charms as they watched the beasts. 

“Almost fighting,” Percival studied the pair, watching the one dragon snap at the other before jumping into flight. They circled each other a few times before landing and repeating the snap and chase.

“She’s not ready to mate yet, but he’s being insistent. If he’s not careful, she’ll get right mad and he’ll have real trouble,” Newt mused, watching the two beasts with a fond smile.

“You think he would catch on,” Percival remarked and Newt huffed.

“You’d think.”

That was the warning Percival received before Newt was leaning over and pressing a kiss to his mouth. It was an innocent thing, fumbling and inexperienced.

Percival jerked away, staring at the youth disbelievingly.

Newt’s face was a deep red, his ears and neck as well. He had his teeth biting into his lower lip self-consciously. Despite that unsure air about him, he pressed forward again, kissing Percival with more fervor but with the same lack of skill.

A better man would have pushed him away.

Percival felt the boy reach out blindly, gripping at his arms as he pressed his lean body closer to Percival. They twisted around on the stone and suddenly Percival was over Newt, the omega spread out beneath him.

Wrong, it was wrong.

But he smelt so good, he felt so good. This gorgeous omega that for some reason wanted Percival, smiled so warmly for him. His scent was muddling Percival's brain, his sense of reason fading in the haze of a mate. A pretty mate he badly wanted and that wanted him.

Percival stared down at him, Newt glancing up shyly with his gaze pleading. His trembling hands pulled at Percival’s coat and he went, leaning down to kiss him properly. He opened Newt’s mouth with his thumb on his chin and then he kissed him more lewdly, sliding his tongue into the pure unspoiled mouth. He sucked on the boy’s tongue and angled their heads to seal their mouth more firmly.

Newt made such sweet little sounds, squirming under Percival, a thigh between his legs. Before long, Newt had Percival’s thigh squeezed tight between his own. He rubbed against it like the youth he was. Jerky little motions, his cock sliding against Percival’s leg through their clothing.

Newt broke the kiss with a whine, biting his lip as he sucked in shaky breaths. His tongue ran along his bottom lip and Percival watched, staring at the spit-shined skin that had no right to be so pink.

Percival loomed over him, watching the boy get himself all wound up as he rutted against him. He leaned in and kissed his neck, pulling Newt’s coat open so he could lick at the pale skin as he pleased. The primal thing in him rumbled in glee as he sucked and nipped at the omega’s skin. Newt had always smelt so good and he tasted just as fine, a sweaty salt-tinged flavor that Percival liked. He lapped at the skin, spreading his spit and scent on the boy as the possessive thing in him shivered in delight. Newt's scent glands were pumping steadily and Percival was getting a bit high on the pheromones. After years of being proper, it felt so terribly good to just give in. His hands ran along Newt’s body, under his coat and over his trousers, cupping his ass and Newt clung to him, whimpering and letting Percival do as he pleased.

He pressed his thigh down a touch, giving Newt something to grind against. His reward was a breathy sound, sucked in fast as Newt trembled. He had no idea where to place his hands, grabbing at Percival’s coat and then sliding them under it, gripping at his shirt and twisting the material.

Percival leaned down to kiss him again, tasting the omega, taking all he could. He could almost swear Newt tasted a bit honey sweet. Spit slicked and warm, it wasn’t pure or proper, it was rough and hungry. Percival wanted to ruin him, wanted to see Newt fucked out, marked up and claimed, all by his own hands. He wanted to mate bite the boy and put a child in his belly. Everything base and feral growled at him.

He could feel Newt’s cock pressing against his thigh through their trousers, the boy jerking weakly, trying to make friction. Percival almost wanted to see him shove until he spilled, but he decided to treat the boy better.

His hands still cupped Newt’s pert little ass, squeezing as he shifted them around. With a firm grip, he moved them around in the dirt. Newt was still under him but his legs were spread open now, Percival between them.

He tilted Newt's hips up, holding his thighs a bit too tightly as he pressed his own cock to the boy’s ass. Newt shivered deliciously, making tiny beautiful sounds. His eyes were a touch bleary, the poor thing barely knew what was happening. Percival knew his body was trying to mate, pumping its own mating scent.

It was dumb and it was dangerous, out in the bloody mountainside. But Percival couldn’t help but take all he could in that moment. He ground into the warm softness of Newt’s perfect backside as he reached between them and took hold of the omega’s cock.

Newt looked dazed, whining high while Percival leaned down to suck away at his neck. He licked the smooth skin and nipped lightly with his teeth, making it slick and red, the warm flesh offered up to him so willingly. It would be so easy to bite, even without a knot, to seal a bond between them. 

The omega came with a sudden muffled moan, head thrown back as he moved frantically against Percival. Poor thing, so innocent yet. Percival worked him through it, jerking him off as he spilled into his hand.

Newt slumped to the dirt, chasing his breath as he laid there and shivered.

Percival watched him fondly for a moment, leaning down to kiss him again. Something more softer now, a reassurance if anything.

Newt smiled up at him when he pulled back, eyes bright and warm. It hurt a bit, to see that youth in him, shining so strong it made Percival’s heart ache.

Long fingers let go of his shirt and slid around his body, curious hands questing down to Percival’s trousers.

He caught them both and brought them up, pressing a kiss to each palm.

Newt looked so open, utterly trusting and all his for the taking if he wanted.

And Percival did want, incestuous notions be damned.

But Newt was too young for this, too young for all the things Percival wanted, still just a boy.

“We should head back,” he rumbled and Newt looked utterly disappointed, confusion seeping into his gaze.

“You don’t want… I can do, you can,” he muddled to speak and Percival let out a doting huff. He kissed Newt’s brow before sitting back. His cock was achingly hard. Newt smelled so divine and he looked it too, like everything Percival had lusted the last few years, laid out in offering. He looked halfway to ruined with an invitation to finish him. 

“I think the real issue is that I do very much want to,” he explained as he got up onto his feet and offered Newt a hand. The boy was perplexed but ever trusting, taking his hand and letting Percival pull him up.

“Why can’t we…”

“Because you’re seventeen.”

Newt’s face twisted, a frown gracing his soft features.

“I’m old enough, I know what I want.”

Percival fought down a laugh at such a youthful thought. To think at the very beginning, one would know the road not yet traveled. 

“You’re the same age as your mother was when I married her. Do you imagine she thought she knew what she was doing?”

Newt shook his head in denial.

“It’s different. Mum was forced to get married, I’m not.”

“I was nineteen when I married her, two years older. I chose to marry.”

“You were both made to,” Newt disagreed and Percival snorted at the stubborn boy.

“I could have refused; one can always refuse. I thought I would grow to love your mother, that we’d have a whole group of children. That she would support me in my career and be happy to mind the house. Maybe find her own hobbies or career if she wished. I thought I had everything figured out when I was nineteen.”

Percival cupped Newt’s face, his thumb rubbing along his freckles affectionately.

“How do you think that turned out for me?”

Newt glared at the ground, tears beginning to pool in his eyes.

“What are you saying, don’t you want me?” There was an emphasis on the last part, more emotion than Newt probably even understood packed into the question. It made Percival think of every time he hadn’t visited Newt when he was young, every day and moment he had been a lacking father to him. He wondered if Scamander tried to fill the roll and what Margret told Newt. She had often found reasons for Percival not to visit but were they the same she gave her son, promising a father that was never there? Either by Percival or by Margret, maybe Scamander or even that little wench Leta, Newt doubted his own worth.

Percival leaned in and pressed a lazy kiss to the trembling omega’s mouth. He lingered slowly, not rushing as his wet lower lip touched to Newt’s, pushing back a breath but closing in again. Over and over, until Newt was pliant under his touch.

“I love you very much, my dear boy. And I want you very much, enough that it drives me half mad.”

Newt blinked at him, a plump tear tumbling down his cheek. Even crying, the boy was stunning.

“But I cannot live with the idea that I snatched you up, that I took you before you even knew better. If I had waited a few years, bothered to know Margret better, a million little things I was too young and dumb to know, I wonder what my life would be like.”

“Do you think I’m dumb?”

“I think you’re innocent, more than you know.”

“I want to be with you,” Newt breathed, trembling as he stared up at Percival. “I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me.”

“That’s exactly why,” Percival replied, gathering the omega into his arms and holding him. He pulled the boy close and enjoyed the feeling, already knowing it was going to be a long time before he held him again, if ever. 

 

By the time they returned to the hotel, Newt was upset, shamed and humiliated. He went to his room without a word and the door slammed shut.

“Good hunting?” Margret asked mildly, peering at Percival curiously.

Something was tired in him. Something was worn down over the years, giving a little more each day, each moment. Percival was done. Done with these biting bitter comments and the knowledge his wife was fucking some other man. He had lost his boy today and without Newt, there was no reason for Percival to care about the woman. No excuses. Newt wasn't going to lose anything from a divorce. Percival would move heaven and hell to make sure.   

“We’re getting a divorce,” he announced and stepped away, turning to walk out of the rooms and hotel entirely. With a summon, his suitcase came flying to him, packing itself up neatly.

He wondered if he would regret this moment, look back on it and sigh in despair. But there was no point in waiting, better to break it off immediately. 

 

Percival returned to London and submitted his registration from the Ministry. He followed that with divorce papers. Once everything was done, he went back to America, back to New York and MACUSA. Margret and Newt were still gone when he left, his belongings all packed and shipped across the ocean. He left Newt the house. He’d only bought the thing for his family to have and while he wasn’t bitter at Margret, he sure as hell wasn’t giving her a house. So he passed it on to Newt, to keep or sell as he pleased. It felt right. Newt had grown up in there, it was his more than either Percival or Margret’s.

It felt bittersweet to look down the empty halls. The home he had tried to make, had failed so utterly. Percival didn’t want to leave them. He didn’t want to leave Newt. After a countless number of failed starts, he had finally given up on writing Newt a letter. It would be clear enough what had happened. Percival wrote to various people within the Ministry and MACUSA, assuring Newt would be looked after, that his career path would be open and that he would be supported behind closed doors. Percival hated paying off people but Newt was worth it.     

 

“I’ve been waiting,” Seraphina greeted him. “Since that day in the hospital, I knew you would be returning sooner than later. I just wasn’t sure if that boy would be with you, made a child bride.”

“You think that little of me?”

“I think that much,” she corrected with a sad smile. “But it was obvious you were both rather infatuated.”

“Yes, well, being a decent human and all that,” Percival replied and the woman thankfully didn’t push him.

A few months after the whole blunter, Percival officially divorced Margret. It made the papers, people loving a good gossip. Percival had just been reinstated as a proper auror and already given a team to lead. It was clear he intended to make headway so, of course, the papers ran stories about his personal life. A few weeks later, a little article was posted about Newt taking the Scamander name, his mother marrying Theseus Scamander almost immediately. The speculation of parentage wasn’t said outright but it was suggested heavily,  obvious to anyone who cared.   

Percival hadn’t written Newt, hadn’t tried to reach out to him. That last thing the boy needed was a confusing relationship with a much too old alpha. Percival couldn’t be a father figure for him, but he could try his best by stepping away. Perhaps Theseus would be better at it.

 

A year later Tina Goldstein reappeared in his life, submitting to the auror training program. Percival was on the committee that reviewed the promising applicants and he frowned at her picture. Skimming the information, he stared at her relationship status, married.

It was none of his business, but he couldn’t help it.

It nipped at his heels and burrowed into his brain.

His mind lingered on copper hair and pale skin. He wondered if Tina Goldstein crawled into bed with him each night. If she had what Percival tried to be a good enough man to protect.

Percival approved her and once she passed into serious consideration, a proper background checked was done. There was no guilt over the choice, he would have approved her either way. Tina had a solid application and excellent marks in her schooling. The other three MACUSA workers who overlook the applications also approved her.

Her personal file arrived and sat in a pile with the others. It made his fingers twitch, but Percival did his own paperwork first. He read through the files, one by one, without putting hers forward.

When he reached it, he stared at the cardstock folder with a pit twisting in his stomach. Sitting back, he rubbed his face and called a fine whiskey and glass from the cabinet. He clearly wasn’t over the boy, despite his self-assurance that he was. He wondered idly if he ever would be, if years of a sweet-eyed omega pressed against him could be forgotten. Of that sly little smile and mischievous spirit that would peek out when no one was looking.

Percival took a long drink and then flipped the file open. He didn’t bother lying to himself then, he looked for the information he wanted.

Tina Goldstein was married to Credence Goldstein.

Percival stared at the photo of the young man, an omega with a haunted look about him. The file revealed they had known each other growing up. Credence was from a heavily abusive nomaj family but left when he came of age and married his childhood sweetheart.

Tina was married to Credence Goldstein.

The name pulled at him and Percival checked a few more piles of various applications, finding the file he was looking for. Credence Goldstein was making an application for government-funded education for adult wizards and witches. His file was more detailed under his own name, painting a grim picture of an abusive past leading up to suppressing his magic for most of his life. He was unusually powerful for a poorly educated wizard and had been flagged for special mentorship. Percival himself had been asked to consider teaching the young man.

Sitting back, he stared at the files.

He had truly expected to find Newt’s name and picture.

So Newt hadn’t married her. Perhaps one of the others? But a marriage would have been mentioned somewhere. Percival was sure he would have heard, he realized. Perhaps the boy was off chasing magical beasts, that seemed far more likely.

He sipped his whiskey and wondered on it, letting his mind plunge into everything he had spent a year trying to repress. It hadn’t faded and it wasn’t going anywhere if a name on a file could wind him up this badly. Best to just face it and get it over with.

 

It took another year and a half before Newt showed up.

Percival came home one day and he could hear that there was someone in the house. A soft voice carried from the kitchens. Percival had hired a house elf named Vitty who was a bit bossy, but Percival certainly preferred that to those far too meek or eager to please. It left him on edge when they were waiting on him hand and foot and so he found himself content with Vitty. She was polite and minded the house and made meals perfectly. But she never pushed to find more to please him and wasn’t looking for validation from Percival. She was sure of herself.

She was good at her job and she wouldn’t just let anyone into the house.

Percival frowned as he hung his coat and walked down the hallway. His scarf and gloves floated into their drawer. The voices fell quiet and Percival pushed the kitchen door open to find his house elf cooking away over the stove.

Newt was sitting at the work table, petting some sort of white-furred beast that was clinging to him. 

“Hello,” he offered shyly, eyes cast on Percival shoes. He was almost grateful Newt wasn’t looking at his face, it let him stare a moment in shock without being noticed.

“Hello,” he made himself reply, the world suddenly off kilter with Newt in his house. Percival wasn't ready for this. He hadn't expected it and his guard was down.

It ached to see him again.

“Vitty allowed him in once the house permitted him,” his house elf announced and Percival nodded slowly. He had never adjusted the wards, never saw a reason to have them refuse Newt or his mother.

 

Dinner was ridiculously awkward.

Percival stared at Newt and Newt stared down at the food. He had grown over the years, his face more mature and somehow he was even more gorgeous, ever such a pretty thing.

The omega looked good. He looked healthy and happy, two things Percival still worried over some nights. Two and half years seemed like nothing but Percival could see the little changes. A different haircut, his cheekbones a bit more defined, his shoulders a touch broader. His long elegant fingers roughed with callouses. Percival found himself taking in each and every little change.  

Newt was nervous, stuttering at first, but Percival was patient with him, endlessly so, and soon the young man’s anxieties soothed.

“So after a brief time working for the Relocation of House Elves Office, I left the Ministry and took up traveling. Mum was upset but in the end, helped me pay for it. It was a big change, to have to be mindful of my money. But it was worth it. Equatorial Guinea was fascinating and I adored every moment. Desk work isn’t my s-strong point, I fear. I do much better out in the wild, I’ve learned.”

Percival nodded along, absorbing each new fact immediately and building Newt’s life since Percival had left it.

“I’ve kept in contact with Tina Goldstein, she just began her auror internship. You know her husband?”

“Credence, a troubled soul but also a strong one. I’ve been working with a team of others to help train him how to be a proper wizard.”

Newt nodded, already knowing that apparently.

“Tina was so worried. She’s very protective of Credence and he’s had a hard life. But Tina says he’s getting better every day. She mentioned that you’ve taken a special interest in him, helping him a bit with social cues and things outside of magic training.”

“Tina talks a lot it seems,” Percival noted lightly. Most would leave off on the question but Newt waited him out. The boy was always able to ferret things out of Percival, his stern face never seeming to work against the omega.

“I suppose. Credence is very powerful and with training, he could make something out of himself. But he lacks more than training in magic. He needs help to find himself and his self-confidence, to find his footing in the wizarding world.”

“You decided to offer that help?” Newt wasn’t badgering, he seemed genuinely interested in the answer and more musing than accusing. He didn’t seem jealous of the other omega at all. Percival was glad for it. There had been unsavory rumors going around with Percival helping an omega, married or not. 

“I did. It gives me something to fill my days,” Percival allowed and Newt glanced up at him, meeting his gaze for a moment and reading everything unsaid. That Percival had time to kill, that he wasn’t filling his evening with lovers or the like. That he usually sat in his sitting room giving Credence bloody social lessons. Percival supposed he should be a bit humiliated to admit as much, perhaps he needed to mention a lover or the like. There had been a few over the years, empty sexual affairs to sate the most base need in him.

“I was thinking of courting. Mum has been asking over and over. Theseus does, too. He tries to build a relationship with me, but it’s uncomfortable mostly.”

Percival tried not to feel like he won something with that confession.

“But he does mean well. So does mum, introducing me to all these alphas and setting me up on dates I’m not aware are dates.”

“Sounds delightful.”

Newt scrunched his nose in distaste and Percival smirked at him, they shared a moment. It was a sudden heave in his chest, to feel like time was meaningless, just as tangled up with the omega across the table as he had been before he left years ago.

“It made me think mostly. About being an omega and what I wanted, about y-you mostly if I’m honest.”

Percival hummed in reply, not daring to say anything in case something rather dumb came out.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about what you said, about my age and my choices.” Newt fidgeted with his fork as he spoke.

“I’d like to think I figured out a few things over the years,” he surmised with a little captivating smile.

It lingered long after, pricking Percival’s neck as they made their way through dinner and ended up in his study.

Newt had brought along proper English tea and made up two cups for them. They drank and shared the missed years back and forth. Once more, it felt like time was slipping away and the barrier Percival had tried to build was breaking down with each smile and glance.

“You know,” Percival hesitated, wondering if he should even talk about it. “What I did, I did because I believed it was for the best. It was what was needed.”

“The best,” Newt echoed, gaze turning to the fire, watching it dance for a moment before sighing. “I really can’t agree, I'm afraid.”

“You just up and left suddenly. It broke my heart, to be alone after so long with you there whenever I needed you. I’d just become sure you meant it, that you would stay in my life.”

“I…I thought a clean break would be best. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep you at arm's length.” Percival admitted. “I took no pleasure in leaving, Newt. I would have preferred to stay, but I wanted you to move on, to find someone better. We... we were beginning to bond and it had to be broken.”

“It hurt me,” Newt replied simply, holding his cup in both hands and looking down at the tea inside. “A great deal. But I always thought about you insisting it was for my own good, that I needed time to grow. I knew at least it wasn’t something I had done, so-something... about me.”

“Never.”

“Perhaps you were right. I was young, I still am,” Newt acknowledged. “But I am of legal age now, not just age of consent.”

Percival blinked, fighting down the surprise at the comment. Newt watched him, head tipped down but his eyes looking up inquiringly. 

“Barely,” he managed to reply weakly. “You’re still my son, I helped raise you.”

Newt shrugged.

“Not in name, not in blood. I... Mum asked me to take his name after they married and I accepted.” Newt looked guilty but it wasn’t directed at Percival. “I knew… if there was anything to happen between us, it would be easier if I didn’t have your last name.”

Percival stared at him, realizing the omega had come here for a reason, not a mere social visit or to mend bridges. Newt wanted… He was here to pick up where they left off. 

It was exhilarating as it was startling.

“You told me you loved me and that you wanted to be with me,” Newt muttered to his knees, his gaze locked firmly downward. “But I was too young. You said you were doing it to protect me. But I’m not too young anymore. Most my age are married already. So if you don’t want to… then say so. Don’t pretend it was for my own good.”

“I was never pretending,” Percival snapped back, making Newt jump. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to rein his temper back in. “It was never like that. I never used such a thing as some sort of excuse. It was for your own good, to protect you from things you don’t understand.” His tongue felt loose, Percival was giving away more than he meant to, but Newt needed to know the truth. “Merlin, I wanted you so bad some days, it was all I could do to resist. We had a prebond already, you were primed for me without even knowing it. You needed someone to actually protect you.” 

“From you?” Newt challenged, looking nervous but distinctly determined. “Protect me from someone who would love me, who would never aim to hurt me?”

“You never understood, how people looked at us, how they talked. If we… If such a thing happened it would be in all the papers, they’d talk about us clear across the globe. It would be lewd and twisted, perversion, my hands on you at a young age. They’d think you were a victim and they would be right in some ways.”

“Why does it bother you so much? What other people think?”

“I don’t want to see you hurt. I never did.” Percival tried to calm himself. Both of them were getting riled and an argument was the last thing he wanted. 

“People don’t like me. Being with you won’t change that,” Newt looked around the room, eyes roaming for something to focus on as he struggled to compose himself as well. “I’ve always been me, a bit a-awkward and jumpy, yapping on about beasts and not paying attention to other’s interests. Callous without even knowing it. I…I honestly can’t see anything changing if we were together. People would talk, but they already do. About the awkward young man who chases creatures through the wild and stutters all the time. Who’s getting old to not be married.”

“Newt,” Percival hesitated, not knowing what to say to such a thing. He couldn’t argue against it, Newt never had cared about outside opinions. It was those he loved that he strained to please, trying to mold into what they wanted.

“I don’t rightly care, you see. I never really have. Never wanted to change myself to fit in. I grew up lonesome for it, but I chose to. Leta was my only true friend. I know you didn’t like her, but she was a friend when I had so few. Only you, really. So in this, I feel the same way. I want who I want, not because it’s proper but because…” the young man’s face burned scarlet as he shifted on the couch nervously.

“…because I love you. Still. Not as some misplaced father figure but as… well, as a man and an alpha, I suppose. I was always attracted to you; you were my sexual awakening, practically. Prebonds only happen when both sides welcome it.”

Percival looked away, trying to think of the proper answer to this whole mess. The entire tangle of emotions still there, never even fading properly. Two and a half years and he still adored the boy.

Newt shifted, moving a bit closer to Percival.

“I’m not very g-good at this forwardness and being b-blunt. But I… Mum talks about me marrying and all I want is you, still. I meet nice alphas and even betas, and I spend the time wondering where you are and what you’re doing.” Newt sighed, looking very tired suddenly. 

“I had to try. Tina said to be b-bold, but I’m not very good at that.”

“You chase after deadly beasts but don’t think you’re bold,” Percival muttered and Newt offered a weak smile. It was stretched and brittle, a weary edged thing as he looked over at Percival. Unsure.

It was heartbreaking.

“So here I am, asking if you meant it when you said you l-loved me, that you wanted to b-be with me?”

Newt sat there, looking at Percival, waiting for him to accept what he was proposing or to reject him once more.

Percival wished he was a better man, someone proper and reserved. But that would make him his father, he realized in a startling moment. He wanted Newt, wanted him and adored him. Why was he holding back, afraid of some waggling tongues when he could have this sweet omega for his own?

He reached out, cupping Newt’s neck and reeling him in, letting Newt lean against him. But Newt pushed away, setting his tea down hurriedly. He sat up and crawled into Percival’s lap, slithering his long arms around his neck and waist tightly. He hid his face on Percival’s shoulder. He answered by sliding his fingers over Newt's neck once more, squeezing reassuringly.

“In the future, when you make decisions about me and our r-relationship, might I ask you include me?”

“Of course,” Percival sighed, knowing he was slipping but so utterly glad to do so. After so long, it felt so bloody good to just give in. If he was less of a man for it, Newt was worth that sin.  

Newt pulled back a touch and leaned up, rubbing his cheek along Percival’s skin. Like a content cat, he pressed his skin to skin, scent marking Percival very thoroughly. It surprised him how much he missed the simple contact, how good the warm weight of another person felt. Newt was in no rush to initiate sex, rather he was just looking for affection. Percival might have felt a bit soppy about it, feeling something tight unwind in his chest as Newt leaned against him. 

He ran his lips along Newt’s neck, his tie and collar undoing itself and opening up to offer more smooth skin. Percival could feel his magic reaching out, skimming over Newt’s vest buttons and the laces of his shoes, eager to strip him down. He pressed a soft kiss to the warm skin and sat back, gently untangling Newt.

The omega blinked, eyes dilated and very much ready to be taken. Percival felt a very jealous thing in him wonder if anyone else had touched Newt like this, felt him pressed close against them.

“Come on then, I’m not taking you on a tiny couch in front a set of windows.”

Newt breathed something caught between a laugh and relieved sound. He followed Percival eagerly, down the winding halls to the room he used. It felt unspeakably light, something in the air giddy and filled with delighted anticipation. Newt held on tightly to Percival's hand, unwilling to let go.

“I used to think about coming to see you in here when I was younger,” Newt confessed, face flushed prettily as they entered his bedroom. “About things happening here.”

“Wicked fantasies?” 

Newt flushed harder but didn’t deny the suggestion.

The idea of that, of Newt making up scenarios of them, of the young omega coming into Percival’s bedroom, surprised Percival by turning him on terribly. That Newt had wanted such things from him, despite all the moral mess between them, it pleased some part of Percival to no end.

He led Newt to the bed and stopped before it, reaching out to coax the omega into his arms. Newt went willingly, clearly nervous but also eager, shifting his weight and glancing at Percival’s mouth.

“Have you?” Percival had to check. 

Newt shook his head.

“Only what… what we did,” he breathed and Percival just had to kiss him. He pressed his mouth to Newt’s and enjoyed the boy melting into the contact. Still so willing and so trusting, it was both treasured and worrying. The last thing Percival wanted was to see Newt hurt.

“Nothing else? Not even by yourself?”

Newt turned a brilliant red and Percival smirked, turning them so he could sit Newt on the bed, dropping to his knees before him as magic undid the omega’s shirt.

“Tell me what you’ve done,” he requested, waiting until Newt’s shirt and undershirt were all undone before he reached out. Bare hands touched warm skin, pressing palms flat to his chest to feel as much as he could. Percival had wanted to for years and years, so he savored the moment. There were marks, scars with a distinctly animal edge to them, claws and teeth. Percival frowned in displeasure at the idea of Newt getting attacked. He leaned in the kiss one scar across his collarbone, lingering to rub his scent on the omega’s skin.

“Well?” He prompted after a moment, curling one hand around Newt’s middle under his clothing and running the other down his thigh, still in his trousers. Newt trembled a bit, pressing his cheek to Percival’s hair as his arms carefully lifted and wound around the alpha’s shoulders.

“I… uh… I explored. I bought a book about it and e-experimented,” Newt confessed breathlessly as Percival busied himself with kissing each bit of skin on display. He licked at some spots, marking until Newt began to reek of Percival. He kissed along Newt’s pale neck and ran his tongue over the cut of his jaw. It was easy to take hold of Newt, curling his hand over his thigh to cup his backside and wind the other arm around his waist to pull him in and down. Newt slid off the bed and into Percival’s lap, landing softly. He was close enough to kiss properly now. Percival took his time to enjoy those sinful lips, to lick and suck at them until they were red and swollen with his bites for once.

“How about here?” Percival’s hands curled around his ass, the nice round curve that Percival just knew would feel amazing.

“I’ve…” Newt flushed red, eyes half-lidded in a cute picture of embarrassment.

“What have you done? You naughty thing?” The words just slipped and Percival was almost embarrassed, but Newt squirmed so perfectly on his lap.

“Touched myself, with my fingers and with t-toys,” Newt confessed.

“What did you think about?” Percival pressed, kissing Newt’s ear and beginning to strip them down. Their shoes slipped off by magic as Newt trembled in his arms.

“About y-you,” Newt promised and Percival hummed, nipping at his earlobe and sliding his hands under Newt’s trousers to palm his ass. Merlin, how many times had it distracted him over the years, how many times had Percival made himself stop staring.

“Just about you, about you w-watching me or doing it yourself.”

“What a pretty thought. We’ll do that sometime. Would you like that? To show off for me?” Percival rumbled and Newt looked so flustered.

Percival pushed him up, the omega blinking in confusion until Percival had him back onto the bed. He settled Newt on the blanket and stripped him down properly, pulling his trousers and freeing his arms from his shirt. Layer after layer until Newt was properly bared for Percival to look.

The bedside lamp lit brighter by magic, casting more light on Newt’s pale skin. He was tanned in some places, out in the sun chasing his creatures, no doubt. His freckles ran down his chest, dotting every inch of him prettily. Percival could see Newt struggling not to hide away, his thigh twitching, wanting to close before he stopped himself.

So sweetly shy.

Percival pulled his own shirt off, pushing his trousers down and stripping. Newt watched meekly, eyes cast down but still watching him. He stared at Percival’s cock, eyes locked on the length as Percival got on the bed with him.  

He took Newt’s hands, guiding them to touch him. Newt’s fingers jerked at the first touch before they slowly grew confident, taking hold of him. Long elegant fingers curled around Percival’s cock and stroked him with fascination. Fingertips rubbed along the base where his knot waited to fill out, a mere bump along his cock at the moment.

Percival knelt on the bed with Newt settled on his backside before him, curled over so he could watch his hands work. Percival ran a hand through his copper locks and looked down to see Newt explore with an innocent air. Warm fingers cupped his sack and gently squeezed.

“Newt, you’re going to kill me, darling,” Percival breathed. The omega startled, looking up with wide eyes.

“S-Sorry, I’ve never, that is, we’re different,” Newt fumbled and Percival laughed gently. An omega male had no ball sack, just smooth skin under a small cock. It was hard for them to impregnate, magic usually a factor.

“Explore all you want, every day, if you wish,” Percival assured him. “Just do this as well,” he explained as he took Newt’s hand and showed him how to stroke his cock.

“O-of course,” he replied, eyes watching his own hand work. “It feels good, doesn’t it? Better than… ah… that is.”  

Percival laughed again, smirking as he leaned down and tipped Newt to kiss him. He pulled the smaller body, guiding Newt until Percival was laid out on his back with Newt pulled over him, sitting on his lap. Their cocks aligned together for inspection.

“I don’t have the same nerves, the same pleasure areas as you. Some alphas like anal, but I’ve never found it as pleasurable as it is to fuck. You’re built the opposite.”

Newt nodded distractedly, eyes locked on their cocks rubbing against one another. Newt’s fingers curled around Percival's again, rubbing up and down. Percival leaned his head back into the pillow, enjoying the caress as Newt’s hands worked over his dick.

“I’ve never paid much attention to my poor prick, I suppose. Once I realized how good my arse could feel, I don’t think I even really stroke it when I masturbate anymore. I just finger myself or ride something.”

Percival hummed, running his hands up Newt’s knees, fingers spread out as he slid them up and around Newt. He leaned forward obligingly, fumbling to keep one hand on Percival’s erection while the other steadied his weight. The position let Percival’s fingers reach him and he found Newt’s hole, the slick warm and slippery as he eased two fingers in. They went smoothly and Newt shivered over him, his eyes drifting shut as Percival lazily fingered him.

“Do you recall the time you masturbated beside me? When we were traveling?”

Newt blinked, eyes opening as he looked down at Percival. He nodded, biting his lip as Percival added a third finger, working him open as he spoke.

“I rutted into the bed after you left, licked the bloody sheets to get a taste of you,” he explained and Newt trembled, his arm giving way. He slumped down on Percival, chest to chest, as he pressed his face to Percival’s shoulder. He kept his ass up, poised so Percival could keep working him over.

“You were my first everything. I only ever thought of you, would run to my room after snuggling with you to read and t-touch myself. I was obsessed with your hands and your voice. When mum bought me a charmed locket to record sound so I could study better, I used it to record your voice. So I c-could touch myself after.”

Newt moved as he spoke, rocking back on Percival’s fingers, pushing against them as they sank as far as they could.

“I’d steal your clothing,” he added and Percival chuckled. He rolled them, tucking Newt under him, head on a pillow comfortably. He settled between his spread thighs. Newt was a tall thing, with long pretty legs. Merlin, Percival would put him in something pretty, silk stockings or the like.

“I know. I always knew about that,” Percival replied smoothly. He took hold of his cock, pressing the head to the wet heat that was Newt. Years of being good undone for the perfect moment.

“You’d put them back after and I could smell you on them. The faint hint of slick, I knew you were getting off with them. Used to jerk off with them, fuck my own fist scenting you on shirts and scarves.”

Percival could hear the heavy timber of his tone, words weighted as he pressed, feeling the resistance before the break, the give as the tip of his cock sank into Newt. The omega took it with a soft sound, relaxing into the bed and just accepting.

“My darling boy, such a pretty thing. Merlin, I spent hours thinking about you.”  

“You d-did?” Newt sounded surprised and Percival chuckled.

“You had your fantasies, I had mine. I used to think about you spread out over my desk. Sometimes on the study couch, mostly in the little beds we shared when we traveled that summer.”

“Me too,” Newt gasped, thighs quivering. Percival took one of his hands, interlacing their fingers to comfort him and Newt clutched back. Inch by inch he sank into him, pressing slowly and pausing when Newt tensed. There was no point to ask Newt if he was alright, the boy would simply lie to get more. Percival didn’t rush them and didn’t let Newt slam himself down. He worked him open and eased his cock until he was finally buried inside the tight heat of the omega under him.

Newt looked just as flawless as he had dreamed, face flushed, the red running down his neck and chest. He was sucking in a breath a touch too fast and his smooth thighs rested against Percival’s own. 

“Alright?” He questioned after a moment, brushing hair from Newt’s brow. He nodded with a sigh and shiver, eyes peering up at Percival with far too much trust and open emotion.

Merlin, let Percival not screw this all up.

He rocked slowly but Newt had little patience for it.

A pushy little thing in bed, it turned out. He was pulling at Percival, a hand on his bicep to guide him over and down. Newt’s hips rolled, shoving himself down with a smack each time.

Newt strained his neck to kiss Percival, messy and inexperienced, as Newt rode him clumsily.

It was far too endearing.

So, Percival took hold of Newt’s thighs and properly fucked him.

He kissed Newt hard and sloppy, tongue licking inside as he gave him hard, tight thrusts. Sitting back, he steadied his balance before ramming into the omega. Hands on the smooth skin yanked him into each lunge. Newt made loud moans along with the slap of skin the old bed creaking.

Percival fucked him properly, fingers biting a touch too much, but Newt clearly loved it. His hands were on Percival’s wrists, fingers splayed and clutching as his long legs curled around Percival.

The scent of him was maddening, driving Percival hard. Percival couldn't get a hold of it, couldn't pull it back in.

“Here I thought,” he grunted as he slammed up and pushed Newt into the bed a bit before Percival pulled back. “Here I thought you would be so meek and gentle.”

Newt shook his head, eyes barely opened as he cried out each time Percival sank home.

“Never thought of it l-like that.”

Percival wanted to know how Newt imagined it, how he thought Percival would have him. But he wasn’t a young pup and Newt’s scent was far too alluring. Percival's cock was throbbing and the pleasure was beginning to tip over.

“Deep breathes,” Percival warned, looming over Newt and slamming in hard, pushing when his knot began to swell. It went with a wet sound and came back out, but it filled quickly and Newt gave a pained whimper the sixth or seventh time Percival forced it back into him. 

“Should I pull out?” He growled, not wanting to but respecting the choice of the omega under him. Newt’s thighs curled around his middle hard, squeezing tightly and not daring to let him move back. He huffed a laugh at the feeling and gripped Newt’s thighs, pulling him tightly against Percival so they knotted properly.

“You like knotting, sweetheart?” Percival asked fondly, watching Newt squirm under him, rubbing back against Percival.

“s’best part,” Newt slurred, eyes unfocused as he whined and arched his back, throbbing around Percival.

He couldn’t argue, head dropping as he hissed, feeling the rise of pleasure overtake him.

Percival could only move a few inches within Newt as he tied but he managed it anyway. The small little motions made Newt cry out higher and higher. The pleasure pulled at Percival, the climax tied between them, shared. He leaned down to press his mouth against Newt's skin.

"Fuck, Newt, darling," Percival muttered filth into Newt's neck. "You feel so perfect."

"Please," the omega muttered back, voice slurred and dazed. The pheromones were heavy in the air, driving them on.

Percival wanted to mate and breed the omega, he wanted to mate bite him and put a pup in his belly.

"Make you a proper papa," Newt promised, making Percival realize he was talking out loud as he hissed and came. Newt's fingers dug into his shoulders as he followed.

Knotting only lasted a handful of minutes, but it was always intense. The knot pumping pleasure the entire time for the alpha and an omega’s pleasure coming from the pressure in his sensitive insides.

Merlin, it was a good high, an intense sort of thing.

Percival was a sweaty mess by the end, his knot going down and letting him pull free as Newt whimpered in an answer. He dropped to the bed beside the omega and Newt turned to him. Percival lifted an arm and pulled him in, Newt snuggling close. They had both just talked utter filth and Percival wondered if it was normal for an alpha and omega to lose control of their tongues like that.

A spell could clean them but as sweat slicked as they were, their scent transferred very well. They would reek of one another and no one would doubt that Newt was Percival’s. 

“I love you,” Newt breathed, face relaxed, already half asleep and utterly content.

“I love you,” Percival echoed, pressing a kiss to his damp hair as they curled up tightly. Newt felt good in his arms and come what may, Percival had his first time. For good or bad, Percival knew he would never regret his night with the darling boy. 

 

Having sex didn’t extinguish Percival’s worries.

It only served as a reminder of how young Newt was still. Percival, of course, enjoyed it thoroughly and didn’t hesitate to initiate and encourage more sex but the guilt never faded. Newt was so young and Percival was an old man in comparison. Divorced and bitter with life, he was someone people went out of their way to stay on his good side. He wasn’t pure and he wasn’t deserving of the boy who clearly adored him. More than people talking, Percival realized he was worried Newt was making a mistake, that his young love would fade. He would be tied to Percival and one day wish to be free. Percival wasn't sure whose heart would shatter more if such a thing happened. 

Percival wondered more than once what he had been thinking that night, confessing what he had and letting everything happen. Putting his hands on Newt, taking him. Starting this whole doomed affair.  

A proper alpha would court Newt now, would formally ask if they could see one another and go through the traditional stages that would end in marriage if things went smoothly. Percival had rushed through them for his first marriage, months of courting all pushed into a single month before he married Margret. This time, he should do it properly, should take months and months to woo Newt and make sure he was certain of his choice.  

Newt had asked Percival to respect his choice.

But Percival worried about regrets for the boy. What if one-day Newt turned to look at his husband and he saw an old man instead?

Was Percival over thinking it?

Newt wanted to be with him, shouldn’t that be enough?

He tried to figure it out as they went along, Newt seeming utterly content with what they were doing. He hadn’t mentioned courting or marriage at all. But the longer Percival waited to do so, the more he disrespected Newt. They were having sex already. If Percival was any sort of honorable alpha, he’d marry the boy.

He just desperately didn’t want to feel like he was trapping Newt. The two ideas were flinging back and forth in his mind, over and over, in an endless loop. The stress of the choice ate away at him.

 

“I worried,” Credence said out of the blue one day, making Percival focus back on their lessons. His mind wandered often as of late, everyone noticing. “When Tina and I met, we… we had a lot in common, our pasts similar. I wondered if that was good or not. I was obsessed with the idea for a long time. I don’t know what’s going on. But people in MACUSA are talking, you should know. About you and Newton Scamander.”

“What sort of things?”

“Rumors mostly, about how you might marry him, make him your next husband. Either because you can or to spite your ex-wife.”

“Wonderful,” Percival muttered in disgust. A new worry for Newt’s well-being.

“Most people know better,” Credence rushed to get out, still so awkward and unsure of himself. “Anyone who knows you knows better. Knows you would never. If you end up with him, it’s because you genuinely wanted to. You don’t use people.”

Percival paused, peering at the man trying to offer him comfort. He really did mean well, too.

“Thank you,” he accepted with a nod.

Credence managed a weak smile.

“Tina would like to meet Newt. She used to be interested in magizoology before she decided to hunt down dark wizards. She’s trying to figure out how to ask to be introduced without seeming to s-suck up. They’ve written over the years and are still friends, but she doesn’t want to push.”

Percival huffed a laugh at that. “Invite her to join you next week when we have a social lesson. We can have dinner. Newt loves talking about his creatures.”  

 

Tina and Newt hit off immediately, pouring over magical creature current events far beyond Percival or Credence’s scope. It was good to see Newt making friends, smiling with the girl he had kept in touch with over the years. It helped settle the unease in Percival that her husband sat beside her. She wasn’t a threat, not that Percival would think that. Much. 

Merlin, he was a mess.

Seeing the trio chat reminded Percival that Newt belonged with people his own age. He should be meeting local alphas and omegas, perhaps seeing if they suited him better. Percival couldn’t shake the feeling Newt would wake up one day and want someone young. 

But the stubborn omega rejected the idea to try beyond meeting with Tina and Credence on occasion.

 

Newt insisted they go on a magical creature expedition together, as they used to. Just the two of them once more. He refused to invite Tina, wanting to be with Percival alone. The mountains in Montana offered up a variety of beasts to seek out. Percival was smitten and he knew it. It didn’t take long before he was convinced and following after the boy obediently. 

It was a nice view.

The mountainside and Newt's back end.

So far, they had spent half a day and they had seen a jackalope and a horned serpent, much to Newt’s utter delight. Various animals as well, wolves and deer heavy in the area. It had been a good trip and Percival was glad he let himself be coaxed. Newt looked utterly exhilarated out there, eyes dancing as they laid low and watched the creatures. Percival had forgotten how much he enjoyed this as well. A nice break from everything, chasing predators in the forests, of all things. 

“I think it might be a Wampus,” Newt breathed and Percival immediately curled a hand around the young man’s neck and pushed him down to the dirt. Newt went but blinked at Percival in question.

“They’re dangerous, highly dangerous, known for hypnosis.”

“But not properly proven. Books say they’ll make you docile so they can eat you alive but honestly, I’ve never heard of it actually happening.” He peered at Percival questioningly and the man shrugged, admitting he had never actually seen such reports either. 

“So why not disprove it? It’ll save them from being killed on sight to prevent this supposed gruesome end for people. You'll stop me if I try to feed myself to it.”

Newt was fixated on disproving myths on magical creatures. His usual method was to test and see if the beast did what was expected. If it did, he tried to learn why it was doing so and if it did not, he worked to create scenarios to make sure it never would, to prove the myth was false.

Of course, the entire process was absurdly dangerous.

Newt glanced again and peered for a long moment before huffing in disappointment.

“It’s gone,” he sighed and Percival was personally a little glad for that.

“Why not start with more calmer beasts first, work your way up to the deadly ones?”

Newt shook his head at him, pushing up from their spot.

“I’m not exactly picking and choosing who I meet, you see. I’m working on an as they come basis,” he explained lightly and Percival sighed as he smirked down at him.

“Worrier,” Newt observed lightly, leaning in to kiss Percival’s cheek before he got up and started up the mountainside again. They would move every few hours and until it grew dark, they would continue. It was good exercise. Percival had gotten lazy in his desk chair and occasional raid.

“Is it worry? Or common sense?” Percival shot back as he got up and brushed leaves off his coat. He should be wearing something older and more worn. But some deep alpha part of him refused to utterly. He never dressed down when Newt was around, something about looking good being essential in Percival’s hindbrain. He did recognize it for what it was, but he also didn’t see much of an issue with it. So he wore his best, kept to the newest styles and to the cuts and looks that suited him best. Newt did look, Percival caught him more than once, and it was more than enough to keep him dressing up. 

“You chase dark wizards, people out to do harm, more so to you, and I trust that you’ll be fine,” Newt called back, head tipped as he surveyed the land and tried to pick a new spot.

“You also cast little charms on me, so you’ll know if I’m hurt. You do know I feel them?”

The tips of his ears turned red and Newt remained firmly looking away from Percival, which was answer enough.

“We both do dangerous things. Let's just both agree to do our best to be careful?” Percival requested.

Newt nodded and headed along the forest, still not looking back, embarrassed to be caught likely.

Percival smirked as he moved to follow him. A small movement caught his eye, something a few feet away, down in a small dip. Pale skin like a human.

Percival’s wand came into his hand and he silenced his feet with a charm as he edged closer. It was likely nothing but it was a good time for an attack. When Percival was in the middle of the woods with someone to protect.

Newt stopped walking, turning to watch him and going still and silent when Percival gave him a glance. He had his own wand out, head tipped and eyes scanning for whatever put Percival on edge.

When he was closer, something moved, a sudden jerk and the distinct sound of metal clinking.

A red fox greeted him when he reached the top of the dip and could see down. Its back paw was firmly locked in a metal trap. The beast shivered on the spot, staring at him with something more than an animal’s fear.

Percival was certain he had seen skin. Something human, not a beast.

A shapeshifter of some kind.

Newt came to his side slowly, blinking down at the beast when he saw it.

“Oh, poor thing,”

He waved his wand before Percival could stop him and the trap sprang open, letting it go. The little fox was gone in a flash, the ground flying under it until it was a white dot far into the trees.

“Such horrid things,” Newt grumbled, twisting the metal in on itself and ruining the trap. “Some magical beasts are weak to iron; this sort of thing has no place here. We should look for others.”

“It was human looking.”

Newt looked up at him, eyes curious immediately.

“When I first saw it, it was human, a pale back with shoulders.”

“Oh, more than just magical. Poor thing, I hope the iron didn’t hurt it too badly. Perhaps a fae or a dryad? They're extremely rare, what color was it?”

They spent the rest of the day hunting down iron traps and Percival recalling every little detail he could of the creature. At one point, he even shared the memory with Newt, the boy fixated on figuring out what it was.

“Pale and small, a fae, I would say. Dryads are thought to be copper-skinned.”

Percival watched him flick his wand and another trap crumpled on itself and squeezed into a tiny ball that Newt pocketed to remove altogether from the forest.

“You’re very good at that,” Percival hummed thoughtfully.

Newt looked distinctly caught, his ears red as he bit his lower lip.

“I might have run into a few traps now and then.”

Or went looking for them, was the more likely answer.

“Just don’t be dueling poachers please,” he requested and Newt offered him a bright smile.

“Of course not, that’s what you’re for.”

Percival chuckled in answer.

 

When they returned home they ate late and settled to bed almost immediately. A full day of trekking a mountain did take its toll. Newt, without ever asking, immediately took to sleeping in Percival’s bed with him. It was highly inappropriate but Percival never could get a word out about it. Newt would come to his room in his sleeping shirt and yawning, talking absently as he crawled under the blankets and curled up into a pillow. He looked utterly endearing and some part of Percival desperately liked seeing him there. He could have that, if they married, they could live like that.

The guilt lingered.   

“Good night,” Newt told him softly, already dozing off the moment his head was on the pillow. Percival fought a fond smile as he muttered a gentle reply and he flicked a finger so the blankets lifted a touch higher. A soft warming charm on them made Newt sigh out and melt into the bed more.

Percival loved him. There was no doubt of that.

But would it be enough?

One marriage made out of a match and formal ideals that had failed. Perhaps one out of love now?

 

Percival knew right away something was off. He was trained in magic, in sensing it and understanding it, even in his sleep.

A pretty white thing, androgynous and only vaguely human looking. White skin that was almost translucent and white hair and eyes, a faint glow about it.  

It must be the fae they met. Percival tried to wake himself, tried to think of rising awake. The house wards were powerful. This creature should not have been able to get passed them.

The faded forest shifted around them and the house came into focus.

The thing watched curiously and Percival tried to clear his sleep mind enough to defend himself.

A soft little sound, a tiny wail.

Percival turned and found Newt in a rocking chair, a little baby wrapped in cloth in his arms. The fireplace was lit, casting a warm glow as Newt smiled sweetly at the infant. He looked happy, he looked so happy. No doubt and no youthful innocence about him. He was older now and he was happy, content in Percival’s home, holding their child.

It made his heart jerk, a painful thud. He wanted it so badly. He could feel everything in him aching for it as if he could just wish hard enough, picture it clearly, it would somehow be so. If he just hoped desperately, just asked silently enough times.

Percival twisted to glare at the fae, ready to defend.

It surprised him when it smiled, not the sort of beastly smile he was used to, like mermaids or centaurs who had an edge of something wild and vicious about them. The fae looked utterly peaceful, bright and at ease. 

Percival woke with a small start, his bedroom coming into clear focus. The dream faded but he reached out for his wand beside the bed. It felt soothing in his hand as he laid back into his pillow. Percival wasn’t alarmed though, he felt at ease, his head beating calmly.

Fae were powerful magical creatures but they weren’t known for causing much trouble. Iron would send them away, an easy solution. Newt would probably welcome the thing, invite it in and ask it questions.

Newt slept on, content as ever. Percival turned to watch him, the younger man seeming at ease, no dream disturbing him. He reached out and pushed a stray curl from his cheek fondly.

The light was low in the room, the curtains drawn.

That was the excuse Percival made for himself for not noticing right away.

But a tiny sound, a timid wail.

Newt’s arms weren’t curled around a pillow.

He was holding an infant.

 

“Accidental magical infant acquisition?” Percival repeated weakly at the healer.

Newt was still holding the baby, peering down at it with wide eyes.

They were in the hospital first thing in the morning. Both settled in a private room to try and figure out what the infant was and how it ended up with them.

“Rare,” the healer admitted. “But it does happen, more out into the green places than the city.”

“Green places?” Newt peeped. He had been very quiet since Percival woke him. He had also been clutching the infant very close.

“Have you by chance met a fae recently? Perhaps helped it?”  

Percival swore softly and told yesterday’s story. The healer nodded along like it was perfectly normal.

“Any dreams last night?”

Newt nodded quickly and glanced at Percival who reluctantly nodded as well.

“Fae take debts very seriously. You helped it so it was honor bound to repay you.”

“With a baby?” Percival burst out. He felt a bit on edge, hysteria bubbling in his chest. He struggled to wind it back down but every time he looked at Newt and the child, it rose up again.

The healer shrugged.

Shrugged.

Like it was a minor thing.

Percival wanted to write him up then and there, wishing badly they were somewhere he had actual authority.

“I know it’s a shock. If you had wanted wealth, you might have woken on piles of gold. If you were ill you might have woken with that sickness healed. It’s a fascinating and powerful magic they have. But they’re extremely rare to see, much less help.”

“So what will happen?” Newt asked softly, looking down at the baby. “Will she… fade?”

She. It was a girl. Percival’s head spun a bit even as he listened intently to the healer.

“With most cases of accidental magical infant acquisition, the child will eventually disappear, the magic runs out.”

Newt nodded, looking down at the tiny infant with a sad smile.

“Fae cases, however, are unique.”

“Unique,” Percival echoed.

“Powerful magic. It didn’t create a child from magic so much as use magic to create the child. If I were to check Newt, I would imagine his body would show me the signs of having carried a child. Despite it not being so last night.”

“So a fae… grew a baby in Newt overnight?” Percival hoped it sounded as incredulous as it did to him. The healer looked thoughtful rather than equally as scandalized. Percival dealt with all sorts of crazy things on a daily basis but this felt extreme, even to him.   

“Magic is a curious thing, isn’t it? I’ve seen papers on this before. Mostly about fae healing incurable things, illnesses even advanced magic could not stop. There are only three properly documented cases, but they are captivating. We’ve never been able to entirely understand the nature of their magic.”

“So… the baby won’t disappear?” Newt glanced at Percival, his gaze strangely unsure. Not about the baby it felt like, but about Percival himself.

“No. In terms of humanity, the baby is utterly human, no fae slipping in there, a myth that part. In terms of parentage, the baby is sired by Percival Graves and carried by Newton Scamander.”

“But not.” Percival pointed out.

“But was,” the healer replied.

He set down his paperwork and reached out for the child again, Newt reluctantly giving her up. The healer surprised him by handing the child to Percival. He hadn’t touched it yet, had avoided even looking at it. But awkwardly, he accepted the tiny bundle, eyes far too much like Newt’s blinking up at him guilelessly. 

The healer performed a bloodline spell and Percival watched it glow red and true as the man tapped the baby and then Percival. He did the same with the Newt and the spell glowed true again. It wasn’t something that could be fooled, it was a spell checking the most base level, their very blood.

Percival and Newt had a child.

“And now, I’ll show you the signs Newton will have of carrying a child.” The healer waited for Newt to nod before tapping his wand to Newt’s midsection, white and red wisps of smoke rising and dropping through his clothing and into his body.

The baby wiggled, drawing Percival’s gaze. It was tiny, utterly tiny, smaller than Newt had been even. Eyes blinking bleary and lips smacking, looking to drink something, Percival imagined. It did look like him a bit, as much as a baby could. Dark bits of hair like his own, the same skin tone, a bit of a frown.

Percival’s heart pounded painfully in his chest, his mind very slowly letting him think of the idea of having this child.

Not a spell or a trick, but an actual child.

They’d check with other healers, of course, to make sure.

When the current healer made a surprised sound, Percival looked up sharply. Newt looked away from him quickly, caught watching Percival. Something odd was happening with the omega, but now wasn’t the time to push it.

“What is it?”

The healer peered at Newt’s stomach for a moment longer

“Are…are the s-signs not there? Am I not the mother?” Newt whispered, sounding horrified with the idea.

“Oh no, you are certainly the mother. No doubt of that. I just was surprised to see you were already carrying. Now, how does that even work? Magic wise I mean. The fae gave you a child while you had one already?”

“C-carrying,” Newt choked, eyes going very wide.

“Yes, congratulations,” the healer announced with a smile, seeming to realize Newt was unaware of said unborn child. “About a month along I would say.”

Newt went utterly pale and turned his stunned gaze to Percival.

He felt every bit as stunned at the poor boy looked.

 

“Of course, I planned on children, but… later,” Newt mumbled to himself quietly when they arrived home. They settled in the living room, Newt sitting on the couch as Percival prowled the room uneasily. Percival was expected in the offices tomorrow, but he had put in a request for an emergency family leave. Newt sat on the couch in the living room, still holding the baby as Vitty fretted about him. As it turned out, the house elf adored children and had looked after them before.

“A nursery right away,” the elf chattered. “A nice big crib. Good milk, bottles, nappies, many nappies.”   

“A crib,” Newt echoed, looking down at the baby and reaching to adjust the blanket carefully. “Maybe a crib in the bedroom with us?”

The house elf nodded and disappeared, off to open and clean out a room.

Percival took a careful seat beside Newt, watching him watch the infant.

“How are you doing?” He asked gently, resting a soothing hand on Newt’s neck and running his hand down his back.

“I’m not entirely sure, honestly,” Newt replied. Fussing with the blanket around the sleeping child again. “This… I’m not sure what the reaction to such a thing is supposed to be. More so, the idea of another in eight months’ time. I had… I had thought the potion I was taking would prevent this.”

“People make mistakes,” Percival tried to soothe and Newt huffed, glancing at him with a wry smile.

“Mistakes is forgetting the key when you leave the house. I’ve created a life. Two lives, it seems.”

Newt looked back at the child, a soft wonder in his eyes.

“I will be responsible, of course,” he offered after a moment and Percival was the one caught off guard.

“You won’t have to worry.”

“Why would I worry?” Percival inquired as Newt glanced at him, that fleeting look again.

“About your reputation and what not. I won’t tell anyone. I might not have a great deal of wealth, but I do have that home in England you gave me. I can manage. Mum will want to help as well. Perhaps Scamander.”

The words soured Percival’s stomach, forcing him to swallow down a bitter sensation.

“You… You wish to return to England?”

“I… I don’t know. I want… I want what’s best. But I don’t want to inconvenience you.” 

“Inconvenience?”

Newt looked down at the girl again, rocking her a touch.

“I know you were ashamed of me. That you thought you… lost something or gave up when you put your hands on me last month. You’re going along with everything but… you’re being absent. It’s been weeks and you’ve not mentioned anything long lasting, no c-courting or the like. I’m not a fool. I do understand what that means. Today, when the healer explained the child, that it wasn’t going to disappear conveniently. Well, happy is the last thing you looked.” Newt sounded defeated, resigned as he forced a weak smile at Percival.

“I don’t want to burden you; I don’t want these children to be a… responsibility you feel obliged to acknowledge. It’s one thing when it’s me, but it’s far different when it’s a child.”

“Nursery is ready!” Vitty announced, the living room doors banging open with her arrival. “We should feed the baby soon?”

“We should? I’m not sure. Let’s see if she’ll eat?” Newt forced a smile and stood up, glancing nervously at Percival before he left him.

He stared after them, feeling his mind twisting and lurching.

Newt thought he was a burden, an inconvenience and a responsibility. Percival put his hands in his head and fought the urge to laugh or cry. He had no real right to complain. He had raised Newt after all, had obviously fucked him up so badly, he honestly thought Percival didn’t want him there. Didn’t love him utterly. 

 

“Well, that was… an adventure,” Newt told Vitty as he charmed something like creamy milk off his shirt. The babe was in the crib in the nursery, sleeping soundly as magic gently rocked her.

“Next time, we put a towel or blanket down first, maybe something made for children, nothing too abrasive?”

The house elf was nodding along, setting used bottles and wiping spills off a wooden dresser. Percival didn’t recognize the furniture, but it had to belong to him. Perhaps it was his own as a babe. It might be family heirlooms, for all he knew. Newt was raised in England and Percival had never brought out the nursery of the house, just a crib Margret kept in her room before she left with the babe to her home.

“Maybe some books would help, perhaps you might look into books on newborns and new parents?” Newt requested and the house elf nodded again before disappearing in a pop of magic.

Newt looked back to the crib but caught sight of Percival in the doorway. He bit his lip, gaze looking off.

“S-sorry, I didn’t see you,” he fumbled, shifting nervously and Percival wanted to soothe that.

“I feel like we’ve had a very large miscommunication between us,” he began and Newt glanced at him again, curiosity seeping into his eyes. 

“About what’s between us and what we want from one another.”

Newt’s fingers clutched the crib railing, fingers running along the edge repetitively. He seemed like a spooked creature, ready to bolt as Percival closed in, walking slowly and examining all the new furniture made to suite a nursery. Stuffed creatures and dolls decades’ old sat on hand-carved dressers. Little twinkling stars and moons floated over the crib, each exquisitely made and carefully spelled.  

“What do you want, Newt?”

The omega looked away, eyes falling on the sleeping baby.

“Many things, I s-suppose. A career studying magical creatures, a good home, a warm family.”

“And where do I fit in all of that?”

Newt sucked in a weak breath, his chin trembling a touch. It was clear he was on edge, his nerves ready to give out at any moment.

“Where ever you want.”

“I’m asking you where you want me, not what I want.”

Newt shrugged, looking ready to run from the room, only anchored by a sleeping child. After so long with the omega chasing him, it was strange to see him so ready to escape. To avoid another rejection, Percival realized.

“I… I don’t know. I want everything from you, everything you would give me. But… I want you to want that too, to want to be with me. I can’t stand the idea of you being here because you think you should.”

The crib was between them, preventing Percival from reaching out for him. Newt wiped away the tear as it fell.

“We spent years doing that. You only being around because you were obliged to, because I needed a good future. Mum only coming home because she wanted to be between us. I… I can’t stand that. I don’t want to do that again. I… I don’t want to be an obligation.”

“You think the only reason I stayed while you grew up was an obligation?”

Newt sighed, a great chest heaving thing.

“Can you honestly tell me that no part of it was due to it?”

Percival met Newt’s gaze, reading a life of resignation to the idea that he was only a burden.

“This is why I wanted to wait,” Percival told him and Newt closed his eyes, looking away.

“Because you wanted more time to do as you wanted?”

Percival moved around the crib, edging closer to Newt. He looked down at Percival’s shoes but didn’t flinch as he came to stand close. He carefully took Newt’s hand, fingers entangling.

“I wanted you to have time to grow more and to understand love better. I might have stayed because I felt I should, but our relationship had nothing to do with that. I could have remained married and moved back to New York. Nothing about obligation made me read with you or take you monster hunting.”

Newt shook his head, tears running freely now. When Percival pulled he went, letting the man drag him into a warm embrace.

“I do love you, just as much as I ever have. Love is patience and wanting the best for someone, willing to forfeit so they can be happy.”

“How was abandoning me making me happy?” Newt choked out, his fingers twisting in Percival’s shirt as he hung on. “You just left me. You walked away in the middle of a vacation and I came home to an empty house and not a single word from you, nothing. For years. How is that for me?”

“I thought… I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“I don’t want the right thing. I never did. All I ever wanted was to love you and have you love me. I’m so foolish and ridiculous that a magical creature granting me a secret wish, gave me your baby.”

Percival thought of the dream, of Newt holding the child in the dream.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. And now I have a child and I’m pregnant. All these plans I made to convince you I was worth being with, that we could be happy. Everything is ruined. I… I love you so much. But I need to take care of them now.”

“We will, we both will. I’m not going to abandon you and these children.”

“You won’t even look at her,” Newt accused, voice weak and tear strained. “What kind of relationship is that?”

Percival opened his mouth and shut it, fighting his own doubts.

“I’m… worried.” It should have been easy to say, but the words nearly choked him to say. 

“About what people think?” Newt asked and Percival huffed a laugh at the sheer nonsense of the idea.

“What if she disappears? What if the healer was wrong and we wake up tomorrow and she’s gone? What if a year from now, she vanishes?” It seemed foolish, but the fear was firmly lodged in his gut. A child just didn’t appear one day and stay that way. Something was going to happen eventually.

“Then we would have had a year.” Newt pulled back and looked up at him, eyes clear on this matter. “She is worth that; whatever time we get. You can’t just not love a child because you know they’ll leave one day. It’s the worst feeling,” Newt whispered. “To wonder if your parent wants you around, if they love you. Truly love you.”

Percival leaned in and pressing his forehead to Newt's, pulling him into a tight hug.

“There’s such a mess between us, such an entangled history of right and wrong.”   

“I don’t care,” Newt replied. “I never cared. I just want… You make me happy. Why does it have to be more?”

 

It didn’t solve everything right then and there.

Percival suddenly had a child with another on the way. A mate half his age and one he had helped raise. But Newt was right, they were happiest together despite everything else. Percival could wait years and years to see if Newt outgrew his love for him. But that would only leave them both miserable. Maybe one day, Newt would look to him and see someone lacking. Until that moment though, Percival needed to take what he could. His life would slip by otherwise.

The guilt he carried in his chest crumbed away and one night he looked over at Newt and there was no remorse for what he had done. For putting his hands on the pure sweet-hearted man. For snatching him up before someone better could find him.  

As long as Newt wanted him, Percival would take what was given.

 

“I had thought about a big dinner in the finest restaurant in New York.” Percival explained and Newt blinked up at him. He had Artemis in his arms, bouncing her as they watched the gnomes. They weren’t far in the forest, not in any sort of danger or after rare beasts. It was more of a fall walk. Newt had spotted the gnomes. They weren’t a shy species and ignored the family watching them as they worked to prepare for the coming winter. Artemis’s eyes tracked them as she slobbered all over her fingers in glee.  

“For what?” Newt asked, peering over at Percival as he took a seat on a moss covered stone beside the omega and child. He pressed a kiss to Newt’s brow and then took one hand to kiss the palm, a sign of devotion.

Newt watched him inquiringly, eyes trying to figure out what he was doing.

Percival took a knee and Newt understood immediately.

“Do you like it?”

Newt blinked, realizing the ring had appeared on his finger, a simple gold band that wouldn’t interfere with his work with creatures or minding the baby.

“I made it from my grandmother’s ring. We’ve a whole collection of them if you want something more ostentatious.”

“A hundred diamonds?” Newt teased faintly.

“That shimmer and change color, pearls from the deepest sea, nonsense things worth more money than I care to look into.”

“I…” Newt tried to tease back but his emotions caught up with him, making him close his mouth abruptly. He kissed Artemis's head lovingly and glanced at Percival, still perched on his knee.  

“If I am to trust that you want to be here with me,” Percival explained quietly. “Perhaps you should trust that if I want to marry you, it is not because I think I have to.”

Newt nodded, looking away and over at the forest for a moment.

“You’re supposed to answer,” Percival prompted after a moment and Newt blinked, looking surprised before he laughed.

“Of course, I will. Why would you ask a question you already know the answer to?”

“Because, if you never say it, how am I to know it?” He explained reasonably as he stood up and leaned in to press a proper kiss to Newt’s perfect mouth.

“Of course. I do love you and would delight in marrying you, Percival Graves.”

“And I adore you and would love to spend my life with you, raising our many children, Newton Graves.”

“Two is hardly many.”

Percival pressed a kiss to Newt’s forehead as he gathered Artemis from him and lifted the girl into his own arms. 

“It’s darling that you think I’ll only want two,” he teased Newt lightly, winking before he turned his attention to their daughter. The girl shrieked in glee and Percival bounced her. His heart was still scared to hurt, but he did love the little girl immensely.

 

Margret was seething with it all, accusing Percival and begging Newt to reconsider. They both made a choice to give her time to accept their new life. Percival wasn’t overly concerned but he knew Newt was. He left it between them. Newt was not a child who needed protection he reminded himself.

Artemis caused a stir in society, people whispering about the sudden baby. Newt, true to his word, ignored them. Percival wasn’t able to as well, annoyed with people talking ill of his daughter. Opinions held weight and repercussions. He might not let them run his life but he did have to be aware of them. He paid someone in the hospital anonymously to let the record slip, the entire ‘magical baby accusation’ coming out.

Shortly after, they announced the engagement, which again caused a stir of people talking. Their past relationship and their age difference went around the gossip mills. Percival wined and dined the right people, let his own gossip slip. People learned it was the proper thing to do, with a sudden child to raise. Percival and Newt would be lesser people if they didn’t take responsibility for a child, regardless of how she came to be. Some people spoke less favorably but enough went along with it. The Graves wealth encouraged that as well, families eager to stay in good standing with him for hopes of donations and the like to various things down the road. It was how society played. Newt never bothered with it, but Percival could see the benefit. He placed money in the university funds for expansion of the grounds and the wives of professors would stop in the street to tell Newt how adorable Artemis was. Percival sponsored young hardworking wizards and witches so they could attend Ilvermorny school and people working in shops were offering bits of advice for Newt on the coming baby. To celebrate the wedding, Percival paid for all the omegas attending the New York finishing school so that they might find their best matches as well.

“If I’m nice to your little husband, can we have a donation to build a gold statue of me in the main hall?” Seraphina inquired and Percival pretended to consider it.

“No. Because if you’re not nice to Newt, you’re a shit friend and I’ve no need for you.”

“Very harsh, sir,” she replied, her tone not even remotely serious.

“When is the wedding?”

“Spring. When his stomach is the fullest, right before the birth. I think he might be trying to make trouble really. Showing off, for sure.”

Seraphina snorted but hid an amused smile.

“England?”

Percival nodded. Peering around her office, it was looking fancier of late, a sign she had been winning favor in her new position. A few years ago, she was head butting for small changes but today, she was leading the way with faith given she knew what she was doing. 

“There’s a little church in a small village we used to visit. A small affair, no more than twenty people.”

“That is small.”

“You’ll be there?”

That made her blink once, her face not entirely hiding her surprise. Percival had few family members left, distant relations and no immediate left alive. Few true friends as well. Percival smirked at her for looking surprised and she shot him a dirty look at his open amusement.

“Ass. Of course, I will.”

Percival nodded.

“So, is there a reason why I’m here?” He prompted. 

Seraphina nodded, sliding papers towards him over the desk between them. Curious, Percival picked it up and read through the offer.

“Director of Security?” It was a big step up, far more than what he should be offered. Percival was leading his own team and supervised others. He taught Credence Goldstein on a regular basis as well. He was due for a promotion, but this was far higher than what was fair.

“I’ve talked to those in your department about it. You’ve a vote of confidence. They agree with me that the position suits you.”

Percival sat back, a bit astonished his peers and overseers would think him fitting for one of the highest positions in MACUSA an auror could reach.

“You should have been there already. You’ve the talent and the skill, the know-how, and the drive. You were divided between work and family before. Now, you’ve a pretty husband and babies.”

“They remain my first priority.”

Seraphina rolled her eyes, actually rolled them at him. 

“Everyone’s loved ones are their first priority, Percival. Honestly. Your second can be the security of the country.”

“Easy,” he muttered back, still a bit thrown.

“You officially get a month to consider it, but I’ll let you know now there is no considering it. You’re taking the position even if I have to spell your ass into the seat.” 

Percival eyed her but didn’t refuse outright.

“Now, how is your pretty omega? Shall I have some families send him friends over or the like?”

“No. He’s made good friends with Tina Goldstein actually. Her and her husband Credence. They visit often. They're expecting too. The university is excited to have Newt on their committee as well, for the welfare of magical creatures in America. Newt was delighted with the offer.”

“You had nothing to do with either?”

Percival shook his head with a proud smirk. “Newt truly is a master of his field. The university was begging to get him to work with them on some level. Wanted him to be a professor but he’s a new mother and expecting so he refused for now. Credence visited before, for lessons from me. His friendship with Newt is genuine. Tina, as well. The two hit it off very well. I’d be jealous but Tina adores Credence.”

“Your mate is happy then, pregnant with a baby on his hip. You’ve gotten the dream, it seems. The career and the family.”

Percival tipped his head in thought, unable to deny such a pleasant idea.

 

“Artemis and Dougal played today. The demiguise is very taken with her,” Newt greeted him when he returned home. Newt was settled on the floor with Artemis settled between his legs. Time on her stomach to help encourage her to move, her little head lifting and looking around. Newt’s demiguise was watching the child raptly. Percival was privately grateful that demiguise were notoriously gentle and known to look after lost children. At least Newt wasn’t trying to snuggle their daughter up with a thunderbird or the like.

“That’s good,” he decided to go with, his coat and scarf floating to the front closet to put themselves away.

With a careful pull of magic, Percival lifted Artemis so she floated towards him as he came to her, taking her in his arms. She giggled delightedly, loving any show of magic and the reason he did it so often with her.

Percival was still afraid she might disappear one day. He couldn’t ignore that, but he also couldn’t help but love the girl. 

He pressed his nose to her dark curls and scented her. A unique mix, Percival and Newt mingled in a way he’d never encountered before. Something utterly new. In time, the scent would become her own but for now, she was still the combination of them both, a perfect union. All babies scent so apparently, to help increase parent bonding.

His daughter mumbled at him, wiping spit down his vest as he smiled down at her, letting her latch and suck on his finger.

“How have you been, my treasure?”

The baby giggled, eyes bright as she peered at him. It tugged at Percival’s heart, how much he loved her, how far he would go to see her happy. Newt pushed up from the floor, his stomach just showing now as he crossed the room to them, pressing a kiss to Percival’s cheek.

Artemis shrieked in delight and Newt laughed, pressing another so the baby giggled again. He turned and rained kisses on her little face and she waved her tiny arms cheerfully.

“My darlings,” Newt smiled, kissing Artemis and looking up at Percival, his eyes open and happy. Percival’s heart thumped and he tried to recall a time when he didn’t believe in such things, in a loving husband and their children. It seemed ridiculous to ever think he didn’t need such things. That he should let Newt go.

He curled a possessive arm around the omega, smiling back as they cooed at their daughter.  

“Didn’t I say I would make you a proper papa?”

“Not in front of the baby,” he teased back with an empty scolding and Newt grinned in answer.

“I love you,” Percival confessed, feeling so utterly over emotionally and rather silly but unable to keep the words in. “Thank you, for hunting me down when I was too scared to try. Afraid to love you because I knew if I lost you it would kill me. I don’t deserve you, but I’m so glad to have you, to keep you.”

Newt blinked up at him as he spoke, leaning into his body as Percival hugged one arm around him, the other holding their daughter. Newt smiled at Percival, his whole face lit up as his eyes fought tears. He pressed their foreheads together and kissed Percival again, more slowly. 

“It took you long enough,” Newt teased weakly, still smiling so brilliantly.

 

Newt was glad it all worked out.  

But Merlin, had Artemis ever thrown him for such a loop. A baby of all things, appearing between them, a gift from a fae like a fairytale.

Percival’s gift.

Newt knew enough. He knew what he had seen in his own dream would be granted. Percival at his side, binding them in marriage, making Newt his for all to see, not hidden or ashamed. A proper open love for all to see. Percival, truly in love with him and a baby in Newt’s belly, ready to come into the world.

A fae couldn’t force love though, couldn’t make it appear out of nowhere. But Percival already loved him, had wanted a child with him of all things. Newt wondered sometimes what else Percival had seen, but he didn’t press him. They were allowed their secrets.

Vitty had been unsure of the potion.

House elves could always sense such things and unless Newt convinced her, she would have never let Percival drink it. But it wasn’t dangerous. Just a little bit of help for them both. Honesty. A truth potion in the tea the very first night Newt visited Percival again.   

He was tired of waiting, hoping for the alpha to come and drop to his knees and beg for Newt back. They fit together so well, made each other so happy but the foolish alpha was so noble, so self-sacrificing. Newt needed to be a tad tricky if he was going to have his happy ending. 

His mum had always known in a way.

“You shouldn’t look at him like that,” she told Newt was he was only thirteen.

“Like what?”

“Inappropriately. He is your father, Newt,” she scolded him. She did so all throughout his youth and was so utterly relieved when Percival ran away. Perhaps she thought Newt would give up.

The idea that the handsome American, in his well-fitting suits and his charming smiles, was his father had never sat right with him though. Newt fought with the shame but put it aside in the end. His heart knew what it wanted. But then his mother’s scandal came out and everything was so perfect. His father wasn’t his father by blood.

Percival Graves wasn’t his sire.

Newt’s dreams of a secret affair and closed doors burst into walking in the streets together, arm in arm. People knowing. Children together, not adopted.

His mother always told him secrets were important, that things were better left hidden. Scamander would visit and Newt wouldn’t say anything. Father never visited at the same time and Newt never mentioned it. Percival knew already by the time Newt realized. Everything hidden away, tucked under the carpet neatly. 

When he was fifteen, he resented it.

He hated everything hidden.

He wanted people to know, he wanted everyone to know.

But most of all, he wanted to be loved. He wanted more than his mum’s secret affairs or his not-father’s polite and empty marriage. Newt wanted so much more than either of them.

Percival Graves made him feel so good. Newt was never a burden, never a secret to him. He would smile him at him like Newt really meant something to him. He went out of his way to please Newt, to do things he knew Newt would like, to spent time with him.

His mum loved him, he knew that. But she loved her lover even more, always looking for him, always waiting for him.

Percival wasn’t looking for anyone else, he was looking right at Newt.

When he smiled, Newt’s heart thudded. When they hugged, he felt warm for days. When Percival looked at him, when his eyes lingered and he looked away quickly, Newt wanted to grab him and make him look back. ‘You can look,’ he wanted to say, ‘you can have everything. You were the first to look, to really look. I want you to have everything.’

The way Percival looked at him, like he wanted Newt so badly, it breathed such life into Newt. The man made him feel desirable, gave him confidence when he had none. He made Newt feel good.

“You have to be a bit sneaky, if you really want it,” Leta suggested. She always had told him such things, that if he wanted Percival, he had to take him. The man was too moral for his own good. That he had to plan everything out and follow through.

“The world isn’t kind, it’s harsh. Students mock us all the time and no one helps us, no one cares. We have to look after ourselves. Or we’ll end up sold like cattle, given to the alpha our parents like best.”

She was right in that. Newt learned to be stronger, to ignore the looks and whispers. He was the awkward boy, who never shut up about magical creatures, the weird one who was friends with a Slytherin, with someone from a dark family.

Then everything went bad.

“They can’t know. They can’t, Newt. If they know,” Leta had been so scared, eyes wide in fear. So few things ever scared her, but her parent's anger was making her tremble. The javery really was an accident, but if anyone looked into it, they would learn Leta was practicing tracking spells. Learning to break them. Learning to break the very spells her family had cast all over her. To keep her. So they could sell her one day.

So, he lied.

Percival was so angry and it hurt, but Newt didn’t dare speak the words, even at home. The Lestrange family was dark and twisted. If Newt said the words, they would find them, they would know. Leta would be chained down and never given a chance to be free. So Newt suffered, trying to think of a way to get back into Percival’s good graces again.

When his mum told him Percival was hurt, Newt had thought he had done the wrong thing. That in trying to help Leta he had forfeited Percival in some horrid trade. They couldn’t get to America fast enough.

Newt was disgusted to learn some other omega was around Percival. Someone else was trying to take him, to steal him from Newt. Leta had been right. He worked harder, tried to win the man over more and more. Until it felt like he had won, like he finally had the man he loved, who loved him.

But he underestimated Percival’s nobility.

A stupidly foolish need to do right by Newt, never mind that he was begging to simply be done by him, never mind right and wrong. It frustrated Newt to no end. They could be happy. 

“You need to be more sneaky, something permeant,” Leta had suggested. She looked different now, a whole new life with a new name. In time, she would visit but for now, it was only letters and rare fire calls. She had escaped her family and their darkness, content to marry for love and at peace with being no one. She had given the ministry information, family secrets and so her family was in ruins, many imprisoned. The Lestrange family had little time to find a missing daughter, much less keep a minor grudge against some American. Newt was glad Percival was safe. He wasn’t sure how far he would have gone to ensure it. But Newt’s mate was safe and so was his dear friend.

She was happy, and Newt was a tiny bit jealous. 

So he drugged the tea he gave Percival and himself the first night and he made them honest, found out the truth once and for all. If Percival even really wanted Newt, if he truly loved him. And he had, he sincerely had. Newt’s heart had nearly burst with the knowledge.

The morning after, Newt drank the potion to help conceive. He drank it each time they had sex.

If Percival wanted them, Newt and their child, they would stay. If he didn’t, then they would go. He would finally give up on the alpha and settle somewhere far away to raise his child, the little piece of the man he loved, his for all time.

But then the fae.

Then little Artemis that was so perfect. She looked so much like Percival. She carried his warm scent. She was both his and Newt’s together. A perfect combination. She was flawless.

Newt would love her; he would teach her to love herself. To never wonder if her worth was in how much others loved her. He would raise his daughter nothing like his mother had, no empty marriages, secret lovers, no lies, and secrets. Newt would never do such a thing.

But then Percival wanted to marry him.

Newt shocked himself by hesitating.

Perhaps Newt was the youth Percival called him, barely twenty years old. The man said he loved him, that he wouldn’t marry him for less. But he already had, he’d married a woman his parents had picked ages ago. What if it all faded and Percival resented him as much as he resented Newt’s mother?

“You fix it,” Tina suggested when he asked later on. “You make him love you. Love isn’t some never-ending thing like the stories. It fades. You have to take care of it. Like a beast, you have to keep it fed and groom it, keep it healthy and content.”

Newt couldn’t help but agree with the comparison. It settled his worries. Tina and Credence were a boon in his life. The couple helped him figure himself out and how to be more outspoken with Percival.

He couldn’t blame the man for something Newt never voiced. 

They were going to be married.

Newt took what he wanted knowing he would never let it go. As long as Percival loved him, wanted him, they would be together.

The alpha would rest a possessive hand on Newt’s back when they went out. People stared, so many people. Newt usually detested to be watched, to feel so many gazes. But something in him liked it then, liked them all looking. Percival was his.

Let them look.

The clever man paid people off, gave money and good words until New York was bubbling with delight for Newt and Artemis. Women who sneered at him weeks before offered him kindness at every turn. But that was how humans were, deceitful.

Newt was no better. One day, he would tell Percival about the intention to have his baby. In years and years, when they were settled and strong together.

At least love was real.

Newt could feel it, could feel it in his chest each time he looked at Percival or Artemis. At his mother and even Theseus Scamander in some ways. Love was real and it was warm and good. 

Percival loved him and he let himself feel it now, didn’t hide away. He adored their daughter and would love their second.

Love was enough.

To really be in love and be loved in return.

Newt would do anything for it.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Percival was his own cock block.  
> Newt had to seduce that idiot.  
> With drugs.  
> And babies.  
> Had too.  
> Oh, I liked Newt being so crazily possessive like usually, it's the alpha, but I wanted the omega right there with them. 
> 
>  
> 
> Working away on other things too! Vampires, werewolves, forest gods, all the things. All of em. 
> 
> Feel free to talk at me on my tumblr!  
> [the-miss-lv](https://the-miss-lv.tumblr.com/)


End file.
